


We Go Together

by GrimHeaperr



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Almost Drowning, Bad end, Blood, Body Horror, Car Accidents, Claustrophobia, Clones, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gore, Guns, Impalement, Knives, M/M, Major Character Injury, Major character death - Freeform, Minor Character Death, Monsters, Nyctophobia, Paranormal, Sci-Fi Elements, Side Hance, Strangulation, erotic asphyxiation, horror trope ending, point of view change, slow start, supernatural horror, what are tenses who's that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-03-23 04:01:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13779228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrimHeaperr/pseuds/GrimHeaperr
Summary: Strange things are happening in Voltron City: rolling blackouts, odd smells, and water that runs black. People are reporting seeing shadows on the streets and ash litters the sidewalks at night. Soon, the city can hear electric whispers in the empty streets. Shortly after that, people begin to go missing.Keith remembered it as the calm before the storm.





	1. BLACKOUT

**Author's Note:**

> I am so excited and nervous to be posting this for the [Event Horizon](http://vldhorrorbang.tumblr.com/) Bang! My lovely artist for this project was [Ren](http://twitter.com/renstxne). My wonderful betas for this fic were [Kat](http://cadet-chilton.tumblr.com/) and [Myst](http://whoalookingcooljoker.tumblr.com/). Bless their souls. Also, shoutout to my boyfriend because he let me bounce ideas off of him, and helped me create a spookier storyline for this. Without out any of them, this fic probably wouldn't be how it was, lmao. Thank you guys so much.
> 
> For the readers, please heed the warnings. Everything mentioned in the tags is in this fic, but it's pretty mild compared to other stories I have read. I still loathe long-ass descriptions .-.
> 
> If you liked [Black Manor](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11986641/chapters/27115095), this is a completely different feel. And not going to lie, this fic was based on the song "A Love Like War" by All Time Low feat. Vic Fuentes. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy.

_Make a wish on our sorry little hearts / Have a smoke, pour a drink, steal a kiss in the dark / Fingernails on my skin like the teeth of a shark / I’m intoxicated by the lie_

Rain drizzled down on an illuminated cityscape. It blurred the stoplights, cars headlights, and puddles splashed when disturbed. Keith shook the rain off the arms of his black leather jacket as he walked down the covered steps that lead to RIPTIDE. He could hear the loud chatter of people. The warmth from inside the lounge fogged the long vertical windows. A light blue neon sign was blurred behind the glass door entrance. It promised that the lounge’s name was RIPTIDE, and below it in a bright neon pink was another sign that indicated the lounge was OPEN.

Keith pulled open the door and his skin welcomed the warm gust of air that brushed past him. The sounds of laughter and glasses clinking together greeted him as he stepped inside. He gave the lounge a quick once-over: the sea-themed paintings were well illuminated by soft yellow lamplight, the pleather navy booths were mostly occupied with customers, and each dark-wooden bar seat was occupied by drunk patrons. Keith nodded to the college-aged bartender before he hung his soaked jacket on the coat rack by the door.

“Keith!” He turned toward the direction of the voice, and Pidge waved from the far end of the lounge.

Keith walked toward her and as he drew closer, their usual booth already almost full. He nodded to Matt as he sat down next to Pidge, her laptop, datapad, and cellphone surrounding her.

“Where’s Shiro?” Matt asked as he took a sip of whatever cocktail he had in his glass.

Keith eyed him, still not used to having Matt join them in their Friday night hangout. Matt recently came back from overseas, and Shiro had invited him to their ritual outing two weeks ago. Matt has been coming with Pidge ever since then. Keith had originally felt threatened by his presence; after all, Matt was one of Shiro’s exes and his best friend. Shiro had assured Keith over the years that he no longer held any romantic feelings for Matt, and Keith believed Shiro. However, Keith tended to not trust anyone, especially when that someone’s gaze would always linger on Shiro.

“He’s still at work,” Keith answered before he glanced at his cherry-red watch, “He should be heading over right about now,” Keith couldn’t help himself when he asked, “Why?”

Pidge elbowed Keith as he absent-mindedly rubbed the gold ring sitting on his ring finger with his thumb.

“Just asking,” Matt smiled that knowing smile, and Keith didn’t miss the quick glance Matt sent to Keith’s hand. Matt looked like he was going to say something more, but Keith heard the door to the lounge open and the sound of shoes being wiped on the welcome mat.

“Shiro!” Keith turned and saw Lance come from behind the bar and clap Keith’s fiancée on the shoulder. He watched as Shiro laughed and nodded to what Lance was saying. Lance guided him over, and Keith couldn’t help the grin that grew on his face.

Shiro’s duo-tone hair was a little wet; his shock of white hair stuck damply to his forehead while the black of his cropped cut was flattened from drizzle and humidity. His black and red diamond sweater vest had a splash of water on it, but his white button-up was pristine. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows to expose a muscular arm and the cool grey of the metal prosthetic that made up his right forearm and hand. Shiro looked a little tired, and Keith knew it was from VoltElectric overworking their technicians.

“That’s disgusting, Keith,” Lance commented as he came closer. Keith’s smile dropped as Shiro said Lance’s name. “If you’re going to act like smitten newlyweds, get out of my lounge. I don’t need you,” Lance made a rapid motion with his arms, mimicking a witch conjuring a spell above their cauldron, “bringing your mushy romance stuff in here.” Keith glanced to his side where a man had a hand on a woman's thigh. The woman walked her lithe fingers up his arm, smoldering.

“Tell that to your customers, Lance.”

“That’s lust. There’s a difference,” Shiro slid in next to Keith as Lance put his hands on his hips, “Lust buys drinks, not romance.”

“Actually,” Shiro chimed in, smiling, “Can I get a bottle of red wine? And two glasses, please.”

Lance stared Shiro down, hard. Keith hid his smile behind his hand, but Matt and Pidge were openly laughing. Shiro kept his smile.

“No,” he said curtly. With that, Lance left, and Keith finally laughed.

Shiro leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to Keith’s cheek. “Sorry, I’m late.”

“Work’s been hell for you, hasn’t it?” Keith asked softly. Matt looked at the two of them. Pidge looked at her brother with a disappointed expression.

“Yeah,” Shiro put Keith’s hand in his lap, stroking the back of it with his thumb, “The rolling blackouts keep causing machinery to malfunction. We still can’t find the source… or the broken equipment, for that matter.”

“I assure you Holt Tech is the best in the business,” Matt said. Shiro chuckled lightly. “If you guys need to, we can have one of our people go and inspect the machines.”

“I’m one of our people, and I helped blueprint those machines,” Pidge said a little defensively.

“I’m not doubting your family’s business,” Shiro said, leaning back and casually draping his arm around Keith’s shoulders, “It’s just, it’s an odd occurrence. We still have homes on the outskirts and in the suburbs without power, and it’s been four days.”

“If I have to talk to another pissed off customer, I think I’m gonna scream,” Keith adds in, dragging a hand down his face in frustration.

“It is kinda odd, isn’t it?” Pidge asked. She sipped on her nearly empty soda, the flow of air created a bubbling noise as she finished. “The city has these rolling blackouts, but there’s no physical problem with the machines. They’re designed to run for years; so internal parts are,” she made air quotes with her fingers, “‘State-of-the-art’, and our company has never had problems like this before.”

“It is a little weird,” Keith mused. The blackouts started two weeks ago. The electric company wasn’t too worried since they were small, but last week a blackout caused half the city to be without power for two days. Keith and Shiro’s house was one of the houses affected. Within that same week, they went out and bought a backup generator from their company along with a few gallons of fuel. They’re currently running on the generator now, but the power for their home is expected to be back online after midnight tonight.

“Has the company decided to make a statement yet?” Matt asked.

“Not yet,” Shiro answered. “The President and Keith are still trying to divert blame from the company and Holt Tech in a formal apology to the city. The mayor has sent us a,” Shiro air-quoted with his prosthetic fingers, “’Very concerning’ email about the people most affected, but it’s probably more of ‘Look I listen to you guys and care!’ without actually caring at all.”

“Seriously. Did you see his announcement? ‘I will demand answers for my people,’” Keith mocked, “Off the record, the mayor’s a piece of shit,” Keith said with a little more bite than he intended. “I met the guy a few times and I can tell you, he doesn’t care about us or his “people.” He only cares about being reelected. His email was a single question asking when the power will go back on.”

Shiro sighed and muttered, “Jackass,” under his breath.

“He’d make it in the federal government,” Matt said.

“He’s nothing more than a puppet for the governor,” Pidge added and glared into her empty soda glass. Matt hummed in agreement.

Shiro smiled sheepishly and shrugged. “You’re not wrong about that.”

“Wrong about what?” Lance said, drawing the attention from the table. He carried a tall wine bottle and two glasses in one hand and a platter of various appetizer’s in the other. “Your wine and apps, _sirs”_ Lance added.

Shiro chuckled before he answered. “The mayor is the Governor’s puppet and is –”

“A piece of shit,” Keith finished for him. Lance set the wine and glasses in front of Keith and Shiro, then placed the platter in the middle of the table.

“Oh, I can definitely vouch for that,” Lance looked around him, making sure his customers were occupied and taken care of. He leaned on the table, his body hunched over the edge and crooked a finger to call his friends to come closer. They all leaned in, ears open. “He apparently had an affair last month, and his wife still doesn’t have a clue.”

“With who?” Matt asked, a little bewildered.

“With me,” Lance said without missing a beat. His friends gave him a flat look. He waved his hand as if to wave off his comment. “Okay, not me, Hunk would never forgive me for that and I just got that man in my grasp, but a woman came in last night gossiping about it. Not to mention that bastard still owes me 660 bucks. His ‘open tab’ is about to be closed and a big, fat bill with his name on it is about to take up his political mailbox.”

“What a creep,” Pidge commented. They all hummed their agreement.

“Yeah, well, what can you do?” Lance straightened up and tugged the hem of his collared shirt. He flattened out his navy vest and straightened out his gold nametag. “We all can’t vote or be faithful to our wives or husbands,” Lance looked between Shiro and Matt, and Keith didn’t miss it.

Shiro rubbed Keith’s leg, squeezing it tightly before Keith could spit out the venom from behind his teeth. Keith was tense, but swallowed the poison and diluted it before answering.

“I’m sure you can tell us all about that, Lance,” Keith said coolly. Lance sent him a sharp glare before looking scandalized.

“I’ll have you know I’ve never cheated on anyone, Keef, don’t be silly.” Hunk called Lance to the back after he said that. Everyone watched as a smile adorned the man’s tanned features. Keith leaned on the table, head balanced on his fist as he gave Lance a mocking smile. Lance looked at Keith as he pulled the skin under his left eye down. “Eat a dick, Keith.”

“That’s the plan.”

Pidge made a retching noise as the group of friends laughed. Shiro turned a beet-red as he hid behind his hands.

“I can’t believe you just said that.” Keith blew him a kiss with a smile on his lips.

The rest of the night was filled with more laughter and more appetizer plates. The group of friends hung out well into the night until their alcoholic drinks turned their faces pink and dirty plates stacked in the middle of their table. They talked about the machinery, the electric company, and Keith’s urban fantasy novel he was currently writing.

Somewhere around 2 am, the streetlights outside RIPTIDE flickered ominously as a blood red cloud tinted the white moonlight. Voltron city was shrouded in an eerie red darkness and from beneath the city, a black mist drifted from the sewers and formed a small puddled outside on the street. A car sped by and ran over the puddle, but the puddle ripped into the tire. The sound of _pop!_ echoed loudly in the deserted streets, and from the lounge, everyone could hear the screech of car tires.

Lance dropped the glass he had in his hand. _“_ _¡_ _Coño!”_ he exclaimed as the glass shattered at his feet. Pissed, Lance threw the dishrag on his shoulder onto the countertop and walked toward the front entrance of his lounge. Shiro followed him out, along with Matt, Hunk and a few other patrons. Keith watched as the lights in the lounge flickered.

“A rolling blackout,” Pidge said.

Keith nodded. He turned his body to see the door close behind the group and when he listened closely, he could hear their footsteps ascend the wet concrete stairs. The lights went out in RIPTIDE and a loud hum reverberated in the quiet lounge. Keith and Pidge felt the vibrations beneath the soles of their feet. Keith slid out of the booth just as Lance burst through the front door of RIPTIDE.

Lance’s heart was pounding harshly in his chest as he shut the door behind him. With hurried footsteps, Keith made his way toward as Lance fumbled for the lounge’s keys in his pockets and locked the door. Lance’s breathing was erratic and his eyes were wide. Keith clapped Lance’s shoulder as Lance gave the door a hard tug to ensure its lock could withstand a blunt force.

“Lance, where is everyone?” Keith looked at his friend, then at the door. He didn’t see anyone follow Lance down and in the night, he couldn't see beyond the dark window. Keith felt the bile rise in his throat as the fear set in. Keith squeezed Lance’s shoulder. “Where’s Shiro?”

The keys jingled in Lance’s hands. Lance could hear his blood pounding in his ears. His breaths were short and rapid and he didn’t notice that the lounge and its patrons were watching him, sitting silently in the darkness.

He finally registered Keith’s question.

“I, I don’t, I don’t know man,” he stuttered. Keith pulled him to an empty bar stool and sat Lance down. Pidge went behind the counter and ran the tap to fill a glass with water. “We all went up there. We barely made it to the street and this, this,” Lance shuddered as a black haze rolled through his memories, “This darkness rolled over us. Shiro saw it first and, it was so weird.”

Keith listened carefully as panic rose in his body. He could feel his hands turned clammy and his heart skipped a few beats as Lance continued.

“Shiro was like, ‘Guys, get inside!’,” Lance said in his best Shiro voice, “and when I reached the edge of the sidewalk, the black rolled over Shiro and it… it… Shiro was trying to tell us something, but the black just… swallowed… him and Matt and,” Lance’s lip bottom lip started to quiver as his eyes turned glossy, “Hunk.” Lance’s voice broke, the sound of it harsh on Keith and Pidge’s ears. Keith felt tears well in his eyes as Pidge wiped her own. Lance sniffled as he dug his nails into Keith’s arm, “Hunk saved me, Keith!” he sobbed and collapsed into Keith’s chest. Keith could feel hot tears seep into his shirt. “He pushed me back and, and, I tried to grab him, I really did! I tried,” his sob turned violent as Lance tumbled through his memory.

 

When Lance reached the sidewalk, the first thing he saw was a few people around the smoking car to his far left. On his right, Shiro was kneeled down next to a skid mark, fingers wiping up a black inky substance. Matt approached him and put a hand on his back, leaning down and inspecting what covered Shiro’s finger. Hunk was headed toward the car, and Lance was quick to follow, but the smell of rotten eggs filled his nostrils when he reached the edge of the street curb.

“Guys, get inside!” Shiro shouted. Everyone, including Lance, turned to face down the street.

A dark, rolling black covered the end of the street. It slowly crept toward them, a blood red cloud overhead guiding it. Lance watched in horror as establishments and bus stops disappeared under the heated black. The bulbs in streetlights popped and glass rained onto the street. The closer it got, the more Lance could hear the chittering whispers.

“Get inside!” Shiro screamed as the black consumed his legs. A white-hot burned his feet, then his legs. He pushed Matt away but Matt held Shiro in a vice grip. With glittering eyes, he said:

“I’m not going to leave you.”

Lance watched Shiro’s face contort in pain as he was swallowed whole by the black and then watched Matt struggle until he finally disappeared into the ink. Slowly, painstakingly slowly, Lance turned to Hunk. Hunk’s eyebrows were creased in confusion, but he ran toward Lance, his hand outstretched.

From the street curb, Lance reached out to grab Hunk’s hand. Hunk was one stride away before the black consumed his foot. With wide eyes, Lance watched as Hunk’s hand retracted. Lance walked forward, the black starting to flood the street, but Hunk used the last of his strength to push Lance and the burning sensation aside. Lance watched with horror as the black glided over Hunk’s leg, his torso, then the pain contortion of his face. It consumed his friends, his lover, and then passed over, leaving nothing in its wake. There was no trace of his friends or his lover, or the patrons. The car was no longer there but just the dark, empty street tinted a deep blood red in the clouded moonlight.

 

“People don’t just disappear,” Keith said, mostly to himself than to his sobbing friend.

“Keith is right,” Pidge sniffled, “There has to be something more to this.” Pidge looked at her friends then at the scared patrons.

“There’s an emergency exit through the kitchen,” she addressed them. She guided them through the push doors and out the back, where Hunk seemed to be in the middle of dishes. Pidge drained the water and rinsed off the soap before going back to the front.

“We need to leave before whatever took them takes us,” she heard Keith say.

“How? We can’t take the main streets, the black, it’s –”

“Gone for now,” Keith said with unsure certainty, “I can drive your van to my place and just… think about this. We can just think about this and maybe, maybe someone is out on the streets.” The whole time Keith was saying this, Lance was shaking his head.

“I don’t want to go back out there, man, you can’t, can’t make me, you didn’t see…” Lance drifted as he choked up. His body was shaking again, and Keith pulled him in closer.

Keith was starting to get agitated. His fiancée was gone, missing, because of some black entity consuming him as he screamed. Keith didn’t even hear him scream. He didn’t hear a thing. He didn’t feel anything. Keith tensed as he clutched Lance’s shoulders, forcing his friend off of him and looking straight into glassy blue eyes.

“If you want to get Hunk back, we have to leave. We have to find Hunk, and Matt, and Shiro,” his voice broke like the shattered glass, “We’re not safe here, Lance. We have to go.”

Lance looked at Keith, his instinct telling him that what Keith said was true. They weren’t safe in RIPTIDE. On the street, black, rotten shapes slithered across the asphalt, slinking into the sewers and coming back out in search of _something._ A long, oblong shape morphed into a canine-like figure where Hunk disappeared, its silhouette flat against the three-dimensional world.

Lance nodded.

Keith grabbed his jacket as Pidge piled her electronics into her backpack. He led Lance and Pidge out the back door. Lance locked the emergency exit while Keith scouted ahead, looking for a vague black entity, but all he saw where the dumpsters and doorways draped in dark blood red light. Keith’s anxiety was spiking every moment they stayed here and when Lance was done, they walked the block to the parking garage, its lights surprisingly still illuminated.

They made their way up the three flights and toward Lance’s old rusted truck. Lance passed Keith the keys and they piled in with Keith driving, Pidge in the middle and Lance in the passenger seat. Keith started the engine as the lights in the garage dimmed.

Keith cursed as the engine stalled. He could feel the prickling panic coming from Lance as he tried it again, the engine sputtering to life. Keith put the truck in reverse and hauled out of the parking garage. In the back of his mind, he wondered where the owners of the other cars were.

Lance directed Keith through the backstreets, pointing out each turn and stop sign from memory. Pidge fiddled with her cell phone, the signal fluctuating as they drove away from the downtown area. Keith’s nerves began to kick in the silent drive.

He thought about Shiro, and where he could’ve gone. Lance said he warned his friends to run, and Keith grimly thought that Shiro died a hero. Tears stung Keith’s eyes. He blinked rapidly and took a deep breath. A nauseous feeling began to bubble in his stomach.

_He’s not dead._

The lights in the suburb were still lit, and the red that tainted the city seemed to only cover the downtown area. White streetlights illuminated his drive, and he slowed for children playing in the dark. The neighborhood was still very much alive and did not seem to notice the red that covered the heart of Voltron City.

It unsettled him as he pulled into his empty driveway.

Keith cut the engine and the three of them hurried inside. Keith shrugged his jacket off and tossed it onto the coffee table in the foyer. He made his way through his house, the familiarity of turning on the downstairs lights easing his nerves. He wanted to call out to Shiro, who would normally be in his study upstairs, but stopped. It pained Keith to keep his mouth shut.

Lance and Pidge already made themselves at home by the time Keith walked into his living room. Pidge draped the black, fluffy blanket Shiro kept on the couch around her body as she typed something on her laptop. Lance curled up on the loveseat, long limbs bent as he rested his head on the arm of the loveseat.

The living room looked well love: coffee mugs and papers were scattered on the glass coffee table, the ashes from last night’s fire were cooled on the logs, framed photos of family, friends and Shiro and Keith decorated the wall along with a nice television. Together, Shiro and Keith were well off and transformed a room upstairs into a vacant nursery. Keith wanted the family he never got to have, and now, with Shiro gone, the house felt empty. The love felt cold.

“Do you have a radio?” Pidge asked. Without responding, Keith grabbed an old antenna radio from the kitchen and passed it to her.

Pidge switched on the radio and pressed the SEEK button until she landed on a clear frequency. The station fizzed with static as she fiddled with the antenna, only vaguely picking up country songs and hip-hop music. It wasn’t until a loud, droning noise startled them did she stop fiddling with the radio.

_This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Please follow the instructions after the tone._ The long drone rang out again before the automated voice started to speak. _Please turn your radio to channel 67.3 AM for more information. This has been the Emergency Broadcast System. This is the Emergency --_

Pidge tuned into 67.3 AM.

“—Stay indoors and avoid all windows. We regret to inform you that Governor Haxus has not issued any emergency procedures. For your own safety, please stay indoors. Do not gather supplies. We suspect this will last through the night. Please keep a battery operated radio on hand at all times and leave it tuned to this frequency. Any and all information will be broadcasted here.”

Keith breathed out unsteadily as he sat next to Pidge, elbows on his knees and his hands put flatly together. He wasn’t going to pray, he didn’t believe in anything like that, but if there was someone out there, maybe they would care to listen.

“What are we going to do?” Lance asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Pidge and Keith looked at each other, then Keith looked at the clock hanging above a framed photo of Shiro and Keith in matching suits during their college homecoming dance.

5:43

Keith let his tiredness settle into his bones, body drooping at the thought of his bed a flight of stairs away. He looked out the window, and the night still covered the early morning. He wondered if the red would spread, and if they black would reach out to the neighborhoods outside of the downtown area. Every inch of him was telling him to leave the safety of his home, take Shiro’s truck, and look for the man, but he was no longer the brash youth he once was. He would endanger his life if he left, if they left, without knowing what exactly is out there. They didn’t know how to fight it, or what to do if it consumed them. It wouldn’t get them anywhere to chase blindly. It will only get them killed.

"We wait."


	2. Retrace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith, Pidge, and Lance go back to RIPTIDE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My attempt at world building;;

The sun never rose the next morning. It’s normal pinkish red and orange-yellow hues were smothered beneath the blood-red clouds. The shadows that slithered through the streets had retreated into the sewers, but a few odd shapes lingered above ground. Keith’s neighborhood has not yet been affected, and the black seemed to stay within the downtown area. From a broadcasting station, a loud, foreboding siren sang hollowly through the desolate streets.

Keith stirred uncomfortably. His neck was stiff and his back ached. The lights of his house were illuminated by the backup generator, one bulb, in particular, flickered every so often. The radio Pidge had a few hours ago lay shut-off by her dangling foot. Keith stretched as he woke up. He thought about cooking breakfast for everyone and then going upstairs to deliver a cup of coffee to Shiro in his study.

_Shiro._

Keith jolted, a knot in his throat tying itself until it was hard to breathe. Heart racing, Keith ran to Shiro’s study, nearly tripping over himself up the carpeted stairs. He opened the door to find the room vacant. Shiro’s desk was still in its normal state of disarray: papers were scattered across his desk, an empty energy drink can sit forgotten at the edge of his desk, ashtray full, and his trashcan was filled to the brim with crumpled paper. A pen laid uncapped near his mouse but his computer was shut off. Shiro’s work bag laid against his filled bookshelf, and the single window in the study was left open. The neutral grey curtain flapped in the wind.

Keith cautiously walked toward the window. The red light flooding the room made him anxious. When he peeked out, he could see his neighbor standing on his lawn, back facing Keith. Grey smoke lifted lazily from his neighbor’s chimney. He could see figures walking around from behind their thin curtains. Keith took comfort in knowing that, at least, his neighborhood was safe for now. Keith closed the window.

He made his way back downstairs, Lance stretching out his long limbs as Pidge was reaching for the radio underneath her foot. Keith walked into the kitchen and grabbed the fruit bowl Shiro kept on the kitchen table. When he walked back into the living area, Lance chuckled, sleep laced in his breath.

“Is that breakfast?” he asked.

Keith put the bowl down and grabbed an orange from the top of the pile, peeling away the skin. “For now, yes. I’d like to keep my groceries in the fridge cold for as long as possible.”

“I thought you and Shiro bought a generator?” Pidge asked as she grabbed an apple.

“We did,” Keith placed an orange slice in his mouth and chewed, “But we only have a week’s worth of fuel, and we live in a pretty big house. I’d rather keep a few lights on than be left in the dark.”

“Oh, right,” Lance nodded, enjoying his banana between words, “You’re afraid of the dark.”

“I’m not afraid,” Keith defended. Pidge rolled her eyes at him.

“Anyway, how do we go about finding them?”

Keith mulled over her question. He’s never had to deal with a missing person, especially someone close to him, and he never thought he would have to. He ached for Shiro’s touch, his hand on his, and the familiar warmth Shiro emitted whenever they were beside each other. Shiro hasn’t been gone for a day, and Keith missed him. Keith rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, smelling the citrus on his fingers. Pidge sniffled.

“I guess we have to retrace our footsteps, right?” Lance offered weakly. Lance didn’t want to go back to RIPTIDE. He came to terms with losing his life’s work if it meant being away from whatever the black was _,_ but he hasn’t come to terms with losing Hunk. He doesn’t think he ever will.

“You said those… shadows, the black, passed over right? It should be safe enough,” Pidge side.

Keith shook his head. “I don’t want to go back out there without any sort of weapon.”

Pidge hummed. Lance wrung out his fingers nervously. The two friends looked at Keith thoughtfully, almost nervously. They knew Keith collected a variety of knives and swords, while Shiro tended to repair broken guns and collect them for novelty. Shiro and Keith’s makeshift weaponry was located in the basement of their house behind a passcode and fingerprint lock. 

“Does anyone know how to shoot a gun?” Keith asked. He looked tensely at his friends, looking for any sign that they could. Lance raised his hand, but it didn’t extend past his shoulders. Keith sighed. “Do you know how to handle one safely?”

Lance nodded. “It’s just like an airsoft gun, right? Or a BB gun?”

“More like an airsoft gun,” Keith said. Lance nodded.

“I can handle that.” Lance pushed the memory back, unwilling to think about the last time he used an airsoft gun. The bullet-size scar on his left leg ached.

Keith nodded then looked at Pidge.

“I know my way around an airsoft gun thanks to Lt. Holt,” Pidge’s father retired from the military some years back, but he never lost his interest in the military. His gun collection rivaled Shiro’s. 

Keith looked at them before getting up. “I guess that’s that.” Keith started walking toward the narrow back hallway of his house, and when he didn’t hear footsteps behind him, he turned. Lance and Pidge shifted uncomfortably, almost awkwardly. “Come on,” Keith said, impatient, “The longer we wait, the more –“

Lance shot up. “Don’t say it.”

Keith’s heart beat in his chest. He wasn’t going to say anything. He didn’t know what he would have said if Lance cut him off. He didn’t want to think about the end. Keith walked to the basement door. He entered Shiro’s birthday on the number pad and then placed his thumb on the small pad above the numbers. He waited until he heard the door click to open it.

The lights shimmered on dully as they entered the small, cold basement. The walls were covered with pegboards that held tools, and a cluttered workbench was shoved into a far corner with the house’s generator humming across from it quietly. In the middle of the room was a large, pristine black marble countertop. A toolbox sat open, and a drop point knife sat without its handle. Under the countertop, a variety of labeled containers sat, all neatly labeled and in alpha order thanks to Shiro. The container held knives, screws, sheaths, holsters and miscellaneous items. Keith walked toward the safe that sat next to the workbench. He spun the lock slowly and entered 10-23-02. The lock popped open and Keith swung open the safe door.

Lance whistled.

A black light illuminated the purple interior of the black safe. An array of handguns hung in pockets on the back of the safe door. A Remington and Winchester sat off to the side. The single cubbies held boxes of ammo and magazines. On the top shelf, Shiro’s knife collection was neatly arranged, his new, all black switchblade was slightly thrown in haphazardly.

Keith pulled out Shiro’s .45 M1911 pistol. Keith checked it for its magazine and came up short. Keith kneeled down and pulled out a magazine from its new box. Keith loaded the gun and readjusted its manual safety. Keith turned and handed the gun to Lance.

“Me? I want the shotgun.” Keith gave him a flat look and Lance put his hands up. “Alright, geez. How do you work this thing?” Lance inspected the gun, finding familiarities in modern handguns with this gun. “What year is it?

“It’s from World War II,” Lance eyed it suspiciously. “It packs a kick, but it still works. When Shiro bought it, it only had a few scratches that he buffed out. He cleaned that thing for two days before testing it out. It works, but it has a recoil. So,” Keith shrugged, “Watch out, I guess.”

“Always looking out for us,” Lance said with a bit of humor. Keith let out a breathy chuckle before turning his attention back to Shiro’s handguns.

He pulled out a small gun, the weight a little heavier than he remembered, but held it out for Pidge anyway.

“That tiny thing? I’d rather swing a sword around,” she complained but took the gun anyway. Keith ignored her complaint as he fished for its ammo. “It’s a .40… shield gun? I thought Shiro collected like, antique guns,” she jerked her thumb to Lance’s M1911, “This is a pretty recent model.”

Keith found the box of bullets. “He does, but this was a gift from his father last year. It’s lightweight and easy to use. It also has a custom green laser on the top,” Keith mimicked holding the gun and turning the laser on. “It helps with accuracy.”

Pidge eyed the safety and grabbed the box of bullets. The weight of a gun was familiar in her hand, and she vaguely recalled Matt taking her to the shooting range when she was younger. She hit the mark on her second try. She wonders if she could do it again as Lance hands her a small black leather holster.

Keith sat up and glanced at the top shelf of the safe. His gaze rested on the knife that was out of place: Shiro’s switchblade. It gleamed purple in the black light, the specs of glitter that decorated the handle shimmered. The blade was a pitch black steel and recently sharpened. The hilt had a latticed grip engraved on it. Keith hesitated to take it but knew how to fight with a knife rather than with a gun. He grabbed it, pushing the blade inside the hilt and closing the safe. He spun the dial on the lock, making sure it reset before leaving.

His friends followed him up the basement stairs. At the top step, Lance asked, dumbfounded, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, you’re not getting a gun, man?”

Pidge pushed her glasses up. “Keith doesn’t like guns,” she answered for Keith. Lance’s expression deepened in its confusion.

“Then why did he give us guns? Keith, how are you going to fight with a knife? That thing is tiny!”

Keith ignored him and gestured for them to leave the basement so he could close the door. After he heard the lock click back in place, he answered. “Because I know you guys can operate a gun safely, for the most part. I can fight well using just a knife.”

“I still think it’s stupid. We don’t even have a plan, and we don’t –“ Lance took in a shaky breath, remembering the black that engulfed his friends. Concern flashed on Keith and Pidge’s faces, but he continued. “We have no idea what is happening. I still think you should carry a gun, Keith.” Lance looked at Keith, pleading. After a short silence, Keith sighed with his whole body. 

“Fine. Y’all wait in the living room. I’ll be right back.”

His friends watched curiously as Keith made his way up the stairs again, his heart beating a little faster as he passed Shiro's study and into the right hallway. Their bedroom held a California King mattress in a dark wood frame, black sheets covering it with an array of neutrally toned pillows. The closet door was left open, the mirror inside giving Keith a brief look at himself. The red light from outside filtered through the blinds and coated the room in muted reds. Keith unbuttoned his shirt and dug in his dresser for Shiro’s loose black shirt. He tossed his work shirt to the floor and slipped on the shirt. Keith felt a hand caress his neck. Keith rolled his head back, shifting to lean into the touch. He could smell Shiro’s cologne as the phantom touch caressed his cheeks. He didn’t know when he had closed his eyes, but when he opened them, with a soft smile on his lips, no one was there. The room felt cold, and a knot tied itself in Keith’s throat. Keith took in a slow, deep breath and exhaled as he blinked away the stinging feeling of tears.

“Get it together, Keith,” he chastised quietly.

He slipped Shiro’s knife into his pant pocket and walked onto Shiro’s side of the bed. His bedside table rattled as Keith pulled open the top drawer. He dug underneath Shiro’s portfolio and various bill receipts until he found Shiro’s Glock. He checked the magazine, its seventeen rounds still in place. He made sure the safety was on before he slipped the gun into his waistband, the cold plastic making goosebumps appear on his skin.

Keith took a moment to collect himself before heading back downstairs. He could hear the buzz of the radio, and when he reached the bottom step, he could make out the words.

“The United States Army has entered the city around six this morning. General Patricia Torres advised Voltron City to take shelter in homes and for those living in the downtown area, there are soldiers who will escort you and your family to a bunker outside of the city. The threat is unknown, but several people have been reported missing. Please stay indoors. A mandated curfew will now be effective immediately. All Voltron City citizens are advised to be in their homes or shelters by five o’clock p.m. Any person caught outside will be withheld and questioned before release. Fines for not following the curfew will range from $800 to $1,500.”

The room stilled.

“The army?” Pidge echoed, her voice distant.

“Missing?” Lance forgot to swallow his fear.

Keith listened to the broadcast again, the phrase _Several people have been reported missing_ echoing in his head. Slowly, he looked at his two friends, a shared expression of unease between the three of them.

“We have to find them.”

_I have to find Shiro._

 

 

Lance drove his truck slowly through the neighborhood and city streets. The homes were eerily quiet, the streets deserted. Lance played a CD that skipped every now and then, and although the music was meant to be of comfort, it set Keith on edge.

When Lance took the downtown exit, Keith didn’t see a perimeter. The streets were empty; no cars, no tanks, no soldiers. The red blanketed everything in its unsettling light. The clouds still covered the sky and Keith felt suffocated as he squeezed between Pidge and the passenger door. He let out a sharp breath as his body tensed. He tried to remember the breathing exercises Shiro taught him. He listened to a memory of Shiro’s voice as Lance pulled into the back parking lot of RIPTIDE. Pidge dug in her backpack as she hopped out of the truck and pulled out flashlights. Keith recognized them from his kitchen drawer.

“What’s the plan?” Lance asked as he shook the flashlight on. The yellow of the beam was dim, but it would suffice. The red made the world a little darker, but it didn’t compare to the darkness of night.

Keith took a flashlight from Pidge, the weight heavy in his hands. He didn’t bother testing it out. “We go around the front and see what we can find.”

Lance tried to remember if he had seen anything, but he couldn’t.

Pidge tittered on her feet anxiously. “Let’s start moving. The back alley always gave me the creeps.” She took off without them, her heart beating. She wanted to find something, anything, that could give her an insight into what happened last night. Matt was there with her, in the flesh, and then suddenly, he was gone. His absence made her nervous. Her friend’s absences made her worried.

“No one vanishes without a trace,” she said aloud, more to herself than to Keith or Lance. They nodded their silent agreement anyway as they rounded the front of the building.

Lance’s stomach dropped.

The car that was missing yesterday had returned, except instead of it twisted around the street pole, it laid on the sidewalk, upside-down, covered in dripping black liquid. He looked around and saw Keith walk toward where Shiro had been, Pidge at his heels. _Did they not see the car?_

“Guys,” Lance’s voice cracked. Pidge and Keith stopped in their tracks. Lance pointed the flashlight at the car, the beam skimming the tan metal but as he reached the black, the light was not visible.

“Did you just… is the beam on it?” Pidge asked. Lance nodded.

“This car wasn’t here yesterday…” he said so softly that it was almost inaudible. 

Pidge kneeled down near the car. She lifted her hand to touch the inky black.

“Pidge,” Keith started but didn’t finish. He pulled Shiro’s blade from his pocket and flipped the blade out. Something didn’t feel right; he could feel the thickness of the air, the gentle breeze flowing through the city, but it was all off. The sounds of the city were silent. Keith slowly approached Pidge from behind.

He watched as Pidge touched the black. She jerked her hand back and yelped, falling backward and clutching her hand. She hissed and readjusted her glasses with her other hand.

Keith slid next to her, grabbing her wrist to inspect what happened. Her fingertips were an irritated red, and Keith could see the strips of skin already beginning to peel away.

“Man,” she breathed. Pidge yanked her hand away from Keith and blew on her fingertips. “I have a water bottle in my bag.” Keith pulled it out and uncapped the bottle. Pidge poured the cold water over the burn. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“That was dumb, genius,” Lance said. Pidge stuck her tongue out at him. “I guess we know not to touch the black stuff.”

“So the black absorbs all light, and is incredibly hot,” Pidge flexed her fingers, the pain still pulsating on her fingertips.

“It kind of reminds me of that paint the one guy created years ago,” Lance shone the light on the black again, staring into its unknown abyss. An uneasy feeling bubbled in his chest.

“Vantablack?” Pidge said while she stood up, hand clutched to her chest.

Keith walked away from them, satisfied that Pidge was alright. He let their conversation about paint drift into the background noise as he made his way up the street again.

Ash collected at the soles of his shoes, helping him to leave footprints in the streets. The glass from street lights was shattered on the floor around them, and storefronts were covered with an inky black substance. As he got closer to where Shiro and Matt had disappeared, he saw something: a glass surface reflected the hazy red light, a dull glaze over the glass. Keith squatted to inspect it.

The glass was covered in the black, save for a spot on the lens. Keith picked it up and held the object. As he expected, the black dripped off of it and onto the concrete, turning to ash upon contact. With the ink mostly gone, it revealed a crack in the glass and the other lens. Keith recognized the hunter-green frame.

“Pidge,” he called as he swallowed thickly. He heard the footsteps of his friend’s approach. Keith held out the glasses behind him. They were snatched from his grasp. His eyes stung as he heard the sharp, surprised gasp. He imagined Lance had put a hand on her shoulder in comfort. 

Pidge inspected her brother’s glasses. She ran her thumb over the crack and dug her nail into it to take out the ash. Hot tears welled in her eyes as the prospect of her brother being gone finally hit her. Pidge’s lip quivered and she bit it to stop. The glasses were stained with the black, and slowly, she folded the legs and tucked the glasses into the mesh of her backpack. She took a deep breath to center herself and focused on the warmth of Lance’s hand. 

“What does this mean?” she whispered to no one in particular.

Keith turned to look at Pidge, then to Lance. They exchanged unsure glances. 

“I don’t know,” Keith responded lowly. He turned back around to avoid seeing Pidge cry. With a short huff, Keith pushed himself up. As he took a step, he felt something hard under the sole of his shoe.

Confused, Keith swiped his foot away and heard whatever it was being dragged on the street. His shoe took off most of the black to reveal something small and silver underneath. Lance shone the flashlight on it, and Keith’s breath hitched in his throat.

He leaned over and grabbed the silver lighter, his fingers burning from the residual black on it. The piece of metal was a familiar weight in his palm, and Keith wanted it to be a stranger. He didn’t want to flip over the lighter, but he did it anyway. Engraved in a small script font, Shiro’s first name decorated a small corner of the lighter. Engraved stars were scattered above it, outlined in black from the odd inky substance. It was his birthday gift from Keith three years ago. Shiro had smiled at him and kissed his cheek in thanks. Keith didn’t like Shiro’s smoking habits, but he liked it even less to find plastic lighters in pockets, corners, and the kitchen counter. Keith finally had enough and gave him a new, custom lighter, and Shiro hasn’t used anything other than his gift to light his cigarettes since. Shiro was never without it; on long business trips, he kept it on him. It was like Keith was there with him. With a deep, unsteady breath, Keith turned around, showing the lighter to his friends. 

“Is that…?”

Keith nodded, showing his friends the name engraved on the silver metal. Pidge wiped her eyes and Keith stifled his feelings. He had found Matt’s glasses, and Shiro’s lighter, but…

Lance choked on a sob.

There were no signs of Hunk. Lance turned away from his friends and moved the flashlight over the ash, trying to find a bump or something sticking out buried underneath the sullen grey. Keith and Pidge joined him in his search, their nails collecting ash.

After an hour of scouring the street, their search came up short. There were no signs of the shadows Lance spoke of or any sign of Hunk.  It seemed like the city was empty, devoid of life despite the claim that the Army was deployed.

Lance let out a frustrated groan.

“This is pointless!” He threw the flashlight, and Keith watched as it rolled. “Maybe Hunk really is gone, maybe he’s dead. You guys found traces of Matt and Shiro, but who’s to say that Hunk made it?”

Pidge approached him as Keith followed the flashlight.

“Maybe he’s gone, Pidge, maybe they all are,” he sniffled. Pidge tried to say something, but Lance cut her off. “It’s all my fault,” Lance crumbled to the ground, sitting on the curb outside RIPTIDE, “I should’ve saved them, I should’ve… I should’ve…” he drifted, burying his head into his knees.

Keith stepped on the flashlight before it reached the drain. It’s light caught something on the drainage bar. Keith squinted. He bent over to grab the flashlight and shone the light on the bar. An orange fabric was looped around the bar, dirty and stained. Keith pulled it from the drain, delicately folding it into his hand. The black burned his fingertips, but he held it. 

“There’s nothing you could have done, Lance. Whatever got them would have probably gotten you too,” Pidge assured him through a sniffle. She had her own thoughts, her own opinions, but none of the blame was geared toward Lance. It wasn’t his fault Matt disappeared, or Shiro, or Hunk. She was just glad Lance wasn’t taken, too.

And so was Keith.

Keith walked up to his sobbing friend, gently grabbing his hand and placing the fabric in his hand.

Lance gasped.

Through tears, he recognized the orange fabric. It was dirty and stained, but Lance clung to the familiarity of it. The first headband Lance had given Hunk was the same orange color, back in high school when Hunk made the wrestling team. It had lasted until it got singed in culinary school, and when that happened, Lance had readily replaced the headband at Hunk’s graduation. The second one sat in his hands, cold, thin, and forgotten.

The three friends felt the weight of their objects and the weight of their losses.

Keith imagined Shiro comforting him, hand on his shoulder like he would only be gone for a couple of weeks and not forever. The phantom hand caressed his cheek again and traced down his arm. Keith’s heart fluttered in his chest. It ached.

The foreboding siren echoed throughout the city again. A flock of pigeons that hid in a nearby tree fluttered out, scattering. Pidge watched them go.

“What now?” Lance sniffled, running his hands through his greasy, disheveled hair.

“We have to figure this out,” Pidge said under another siren wail, “There’s got to be a reason why whatever took them left these, right?”

Keith thought about it. Shiro’s lighter was left, but no Shiro. There were pigeons in the trees, but not humans, save for him and his friends, in the street. The car had reappeared but without its driver. _What is going on?_

Beneath them, the street rumbled. Several blocks down, a tank rolled slowly. 

“Guys, we have to go,” Keith said, springing up. Pidge and Lance followed his gaze. The tank rolled slowly toward them, and a few soldiers flanked it. Keith ran toward the alley with Pidge and Lance behind him.

They leaped into Lance’s truck, and Lance started the ignition. His truck spluttered to life and Lance drove them away.

“They’re late to the party,” Lance said bitterly.

“We still have to figure this out, guys. We have no idea what’s going on,” Pidge inspected her brother’s glasses, running her thumb over the cracked lens.

“We can figure it out back at my place,” Keith said, absentmindedly flicking open and close Shiro’s lighter. 

Lance ran his hand through his hair again, making a face when he felt the grease. “I’m fine, but I need to go back to my place and shower.” 

Pidge sniffed her clothes. “Likewise.” 

Keith ran his hand through his own hair and felt the grime. “You guys can grab your stuff and shower at my place. I’d rather us stick together.” 

Pidge and Lance exchanged looks before they looked to their friend. Keith’s expression was riddled with worry, and even they had to admit that they didn’t want to part. For now, they only have each other. Pidge and Lance nodded. 

“Alright. My place, then Pidge’s, then back to Keith’s.”

“I can take Matt’s van, too, just in case Lance’s truck gives out,” As if on cue, the truck made an ominous noise and shuddered, but still kept moving on the highway. Lance stuck his arm out and patted the dashboard, making hushing noise and giving his truck encouragement. 

Keith let out a short laugh. “That’s a good idea, actually. We need some stability,” Keith joked.

“She’s plenty stable,” Lance patted the dashboard of his truck, and when he did so, something metal clattered beneath the hard plastic. Keith and Pidge laughed as Keith saw the sadness slowly retreat from Lance's eyes.

They’ll be fine, one step at a time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next arc of the story starts in the next chapter, and that's when the story begins to pick up! 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	3. Awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith makes a new friend and the need to find Shiro becomes greater.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully, everything makes sense lol
> 
> ALSO!!! PEEP THAT ART!!

_In the chill of your stare I am painfully lost / Like a deer in the lights of an oncoming bus / For the thrill of your touch I will shamefully lust / As you tell me we’re nothing but trouble_

 

Keith was the last to shower. He rubbed his towel through his soaked hair as he descended the stairs. Lance and Pidge were playing a card game, and from the looks of it, Pidge was winning. 

“You’re going down, Pidgeon,” Lance said as he played a ‘+4’ UNO card. Pidge scowled at that, and her nickname. She drew four to add to her single card and immediately smirked. A flash of regret wiped Lance’s smug smile from his face.

Keith passed as Pidge asked if he had any final words. Keith turned on the kitchen lights, half expecting the familiar white light to illuminate the room. Instead, the lights were dull and the ceiling light above the kitchen area pulsed lazily. Keith dropped the towel to his shoulders as he walked to the pantry. He pulled out a can of chili and bread, eyeing the hot dog buns for a moment. He sighed and grabbed those, too, before heading to his fridge and quickly grabbing the pack of hot dogs. His fridge’s temperature was cool against his face, and Keith slightly regretted opening it. He shut the door with his foot and put the cans and hotdogs on the counter.

“You’re making chili dogs?”

Keith jumped at Lance’s voice. He ignored the laughter that followed as he let out a heavy sigh.

“Yes,” he answered, annoyed, “We only ate fruit, and missed lunch.” Keith walked around the bar counter as he watched Pidge reopen his pantry.

“Do you have cheese? Like, that melted cheese stuff?”

Keith pulled a pot from the cabinet and fished out a can opener from a drawer. He hummed. “Check where we keep the chips, it probably won’t be far.” He heard Pidge rummage as he started the stove, the fire small. She made a triumphant noise when she found a can of nacho cheese. 

Pidge and Lance gathered around the bar as Keith cooked. The smell of chili soon filled the air, and Keith heard his stomach growl. Lance grabbed plates as Keith turned off the stove. Pidge grabbed forks and knives, and the three of them settled down to eat at the bar counter.

The chili didn’t taste right. Chili dogs were Shiro’s favorite and he would add extra spices to it to make the chili spicier than it normally was. He imagined Shiro’s fake-disgusted face eating Keith’s chili, and telling him it needed a little more spice. Keith always made a lame joke that he was the spice, and typically, that comment ended with them in the bedroom. Keith felt someone touch his hips, and then nuzzle his neck. He turned his head, venom on his tongue, but no one was there. 

“Are you alright, Keith?” Pidge asked. Keith turned back around and was greeted by two worried stares.

“I’m fine,” Keith took another bite of his chili dog, tense. Pidge yawned. “What time is it?”

Lance pulled out his phone. “It’s almost eleven at night.”

“Why did you have to say ‘at night’?” Keith asked between bites.

Lance shrugged. “Figured since there was no sun this morning, and the sky is still that creepy red, pointing out if it was day and night will keep us grounded.”

Keith mulled over the thought. Shiro kept him grounded.

“Fair enough,” he responded.

The three friends finished their meals with meaningless conversation. Pidge and Lance washed and dried the dishes as Keith set up the pull out couch and gathered extra blankets and pillows from his downstairs closet. Pidge claimed the pullout while Lance made his way upstairs with his duffle bag. The three promised to come up with a plan in the morning to try and figure out what is happening in Voltron City. 

Keith headed up the stairs and subconsciously, he thought about Shiro waiting for him in their bedroom. He imagined Shiro on the bed, toeing off his Oxfords, shirt half unbuttoned. When he entered the bedroom, Keith’s heart thumped as he thought of Shiro giving him a tired smile, but when he entered the room he was greeted by a shroud of red darkness in an empty room. Keith rolled his shoulders before he closed the door. He did not bother with the light as he stripped down to his boxers and crawled under the sheets.

It was hard not to imagine a phantom next to him.

 

It was an endless darkness. Keith could not see the sky overhead, nor the buildings that surrounded him. Keith felt the heat of the sun but could not see its rays. He could feel the familiarity of the street under the soles of his shoes, but as he walked, a strong sense of vertigo hit him. His body wobbled as he took a step, and then another. In the dark, he could feel his world spin and the ground pulse. Keith felt nauseous as he walked forward, unprompted.

The ground continued to pulse under his feet and the darkness seemed to continue on forever. Keith could _feel_ that he was on the city streets, feel the buildings and streetlights around him, but he couldn’t see anything that wasn’t immediately in front of him. He seemed to be the only light in this world. 

_Where am I walking? What am I walking toward?_

“Keith?” Shiro’s voice echoed through his mind. 

The whisper came from behind.

Keith whipped around and was greeted by the empty darkness. He could hear his heart beat a fast rhythm while his heavy breathes kept a steady tempo. His mouth said Shiro’s name, and then again desperately when no sound was audible.

“Keith.”

The whisper made him turn. Keith could feel another presence with him, but he couldn’t see. He rubbed his eyes and blinked to no avail. He could hear his name whispered over and over again, his heart beating faster and faster as he ran toward Shiro’s echo.

He came to a stop above a covered manhole. His chest rose and fell as he looked around for Shiro until finally, he was within his vision.

Shiro was in the clothes he disappeared in, but they were pristine and ironed. There were no signs he had been in the street or out in the rain. He radiated a soft, lavender halo in the darkness and Keith went to him like a moth to a flame.

Shiro felt real under Keith’s touch. He could feel the warmth of his body and the wool of his vest under his cheek. A wave of relief rolled through Keith and a small smile grew on his features. Keith moved to where his chin rested on Shiro’s chest to look up at his husband, but instead of the warm onyx eyes he was used to, he met a cold yellow glow.

Shiro buried his fingers into Keith’s hips. Keith hissed at the pain and let go of Shiro, but Shiro pulled him closer. Keith mouthed Shiro’s name again when Shiro’s nails broke his skin.

Keith could feel the blood pool around Shiro’s fingers and the burn of Shiro’s hands on his skin. Keith looked up and Shiro wore a wicked smile. Keith watched as Shiro’s mouth opened wide and an inky black spilled from behind his teeth. It slowly cascaded from Shiro’s mouth and dribbled down his chin until it seeped into his vest and onto Keith. The black burned through Keith’s clothes. Keith howled in pain as the black touched his skin. The burn felt real as his skin bubbled under the black viscous liquid.

An echoed laugh filled the dark space as Keith tried to pull away from Shiro. Keith felt the black seep into his skin and spread to his neck. It suffocated him as it moved over his body. In the last few seconds of his vision, he saw the black engulf Shiro too.

  

Keith gasped as he shot up in bed. He breathed heavily as his eyes glanced around his bedroom quickly. The familiar furniture eased him but the empty spot next to him kept Keith on edge. Keith ran a sweaty hand through his hair before his palm wiped down his face.

Keith reached over to his phone, the NO SIGNAL flashed quickly before his phone revealed the time. 2:39.

Keith laid back down and centered himself. He thought of Shiro telling him to meditate. Keith inhaled and exhaled. He felt his muscles relax and tense. His heart ached as he stayed awake for another hour before sleep finally took him. When he awoke, it was to the sound of a knock on his door.

“Keith?” Pidge’s muffled voice called from the other side. Keith woke up slowly, his body sore as he stretched his limbs. His left hand reached over to wake up Shiro, but he stopped the motion just as his fingers touched the covers.

“Yeah?” he called out, voice raspy. _I need water._

“I found something you and Lance should see.”

Keith got out of his bed and walked toward his dresser. He grabbed a pair of black jeans and a plain black shirt and put them on before heading downstairs.

In the living room, Pidge was seated crossed-legged on the pullout couch, a bowl of cereal with no milk in her lap. Lance had walked out of the kitchen with a similar bowl. Keith and Lance crowded around Pidge and her laptop where a text file of links covered the screen.

Pidge pushed up her glasses. “I hacked into the city’s CCTV cameras earlier this morning – figured that the cameras would catch something, and it sort of did, I guess.” 

“You guess?” Lance said as he crunched on cereal.

Pidge nodded. She clicked on one of the links and opened a video feed. “This was from last night, around one in the morning.” Pidge clicked play.

Keith leaned forward to get a better look at the screen. He recognized city street: it was the one directly in front of Voltron Park. The streetlights blinked yellow – nothing looked out of the ordinary until a black shadow slithered into view.

“What the –“

“Hell is that?” Lance reached over Pidge and paused it before the shadow could slither out of sight.

The shape was flat against the street, and from the pixels of the camera, it made it seem like a black smudge on the lens. Lance felt his stomach leap into his throat. His left leg began to shake. Hesitantly, Keith placed a calm hand on it.

“Is that what you saw, Lance?” Keith asked, voice low. Keith did not want Lance to have another panic attack – that was the last thing he wanted – but they needed to know. _He_ needed to know. Pidge looked up at Lance, a question in her eyes. Despite his nerves, Lance nodded. He took in a deep breath and exhaled.

“It was similar… what I saw was a blanket of black but this… this is different,” Lance said nervously, “This is like… a single creature.”

There was a pause before Pidge said, “It’s not the only one." 

Keith and Lance turned their attention to her. She pushed up her glasses and exited out of the video. She scrolled down and opened four photos and placed them in a grid across her small laptop screen. The first image showed a creature similar to the one they just saw on the brick wall of the university. The second image was a better view of Voltron Park, the center fountain half-covered in black. The third image had two small dog-like creatures near a subway entrance. The third and final image was hard to see: The creature was on the side of the car, almost as if it were leaning against it. Keith could make out its legs against the tires and its angular face. 

_Another dog._

“The last two are images from the streets around Volt Electric,” Pidge opened up another photo, but this time it was a map of the downtown area. Four spots were circled in red, two of them being close together. Keith recognized it as the street that Volt Electric is on, and the other as the street where he and Shiro usually ate lunch in a café. The other two red circles were on the university and Voltron Park. “From reviewing all of the footage –“

“How long have you been up?”

Pidge ignored Lance. “These are the most active places where these… things are at.”

“The Vanta Black,” Keith said, remembering what Pidge had said the day before. From what Keith remembered of the color, it was hard to look at: It made three-dimensional objects appear two-dimensional. It wasn’t a natural color but created in a lab. These creatures did not seem natural to him; he has never seen anything like it. The creatures were flat against the street, the fountain, and the car. It was unsettling to look at, and in all honesty, Keith did not want to see these creatures. He hated the dark, hated the unknown, but what he hated the most was not knowing if Shiro was alive.

“Yeah,” Pidge stretched and rubbed her eyes. “I think it’d be best if we split up. There are four areas, but someone will have to take two.” The three friends looked at each other, neither of them wanting to take on two active areas alone.

But they were by Volt Electric. Maybe…

“I’ll take the two areas by Volt Electric,” Keith said, his muscles tensing. He looked at the map again and tried to recall what the streets looked like. There were streetlights, stop signs, shops, and businesses. There was a parking garage directly in front of Volt Electric. _But what about the next street over?_ Keith couldn’t remember anything except for the café and made an antique store. “We have to set a rendezvous point. Wherever we park, we have to meet back there.” 

“We can park behind the liquor store near RIPTIDE,” Pidge used her finger to circle a building on the map, her finger creating a red line around it, “It’s easier to drive into and out of since it’s flat and the van can fit in the alley. The store will also hide the van from the street view, just in case the military decides to show up. 

“I’ll take the university; I’m probably the only one that knows it well enough to not get lost.” It wasn’t a jab, but it still hurt. Keith dropped out his freshman year, and Lance never had the opportunity to apply. They nodded anyway. It only seemed right for her to take the university anyway; Pidge and Matt both graduated from the university, and still did research there from time to time. 

“I’ll take Voltron Park,” Lance said, “I know that place really well.” It went without saying that it was because of Hunk. Their first and last date was at the park. The two spent hours walking around and talking aimlessly, hand-in-hand with matching smiles. The park was mostly quiet and going there, maybe Hunk will show up. Somehow.

“We take anything we can; flashlights, weapons, sharp, pointy things.”

“Keith is a sharp pointy thing.”

“Anyway,” Keith interrupted, “We can’t use our cell phones. The towers are out. I suggest we take, at the most, an hour. After an hour we met back at the van.”

“How will we know what time it is though?” Lance asked.

Keith opened his mouth, not really knowing an answer, but Pidge beat him to it. “There are clocks on campus and a clock streetlight in the park near the fountain. It's solar powered, but its reserved energy should still have it working,”

“Right.”

“There’s also a clock on a building near Volt Electric. Whenever we get to our locations, look at the clock and time an hour. That’s when we head back, got it?”

Pidge and Lance nodded.

“Alright, let’s go.”

The three of them gathered their things from yesterday. Pidge and Lance put on their holsters and checked if their guns were loaded. Pidge had taken one of the spare knives her father had around their house, and Lance had asked Keith for another gun. He ended up with Shiro’s shotgun and extra shells; the gun strapped to his back while three shells filled his pockets. Keith kept Shiro’s blade in his jacket pocket while Shiro’s Glock rested in its holster on his waist. Once the three of them were ready, they headed out. 

The red was never-ending as they drove back into the city. The clouds seemed to clear up, but the sun was still missing. An uneasy feeling settled over them as they drove past the military checkpoint and into a backroad. Gravel moved under the van’s tires and quickly shifted into asphalt. Pidge took the back streets to the liquor store, parking her van in its empty lot. She cut the engine and silence filled the van. 

“Stick to the plan,” Keith said, his hand in his pockets, his fingers fiddling with Shiro’s knife.

“Back here in an hour.”

“What if we find them?” Pidge asked, staring straight ahead. His knuckles whitened due to her grip on the wheel. She could feel that something was going to happen, her heart beating abnormally and her intuition flaring. It was a sick feeling in her stomach, but it wasn’t negative. She could feel that something was going to happen, she just didn’t know what.

“We bring them back here,” Keith said after a moment. “We bring them back here and drive them back to my place. Then we figure things out.”

“So, keep everything linear?” she said.

Lance looked at Keith, who nodded.

“Keep everything linear.” Keith echoed.

The three left the safety of the van with a promise to return. Keith made his way through the backstreets. He could hear his heart pump in his ears as he walked, the red darkness making the alleys and streets more sinister than they needed to be. It was almost suffocating. 

His footsteps echoed as he made his way into the street. He could hear the deep echoing voices of soldiers, so he made his way quickly down the street. When he was a block away from Volt Electric, he saw a familiar figure at the street corner.

“Shiro?” Keith’s voice echoed slightly in the empty street. Shiro stood still. Keith approached him cautiously, calling his name. Something’s not right. Shiro was there, his outline clear to Keith, but he couldn’t make out any of Shiro’s features. Keith called out to him again. This time, Shiro turned and walked onto the street Volt Electric was on. “Shiro, wait!” Keith reached out and broke into a run to catch up. When he turned the corner, Shiro was gone. A cracked streetlight blinked over an up-turned car and a body. 

Keith sucked in a breath as bile rose in his throat. He could see a pool of silver hair and the shape of a splayed hand. It looked like she was on top of the shattered glass of the front window. Keith flipped open Shiro’s knife and approached her, not quite knowing what to expect. When he got closer, he noticed the body wasn’t moving.

_Is she dead?_

He was about a foot away when she groaned. The woman moved her arm to under her body and pushed. She balanced on her weak limbs as she sat up. Her arms were scrapped bloody and coated in black ash. She had dried blood on her hairline and upper lip. Blue eyes stared at Keith, and they both jumped back.

“Goodness,” she breathed. She closed her eyes again and lifted a hand to her heart as she leaned back on her other hand. “You scared me.”

“I’m sorry,” Keith said awkwardly, “I thought you were...” he trailed off. 

She looked at him, then at herself. “I can see why you thought that.” She used the side of the car to pull herself up, but Keith rushed to her aid anyway. She latched onto Keith’s arm as he guided her to her feet.

“Thank you,” she said. She pushed her hair back, but it looked like it hurt her to do so. She winced whenever her wrist moved. “My name is Allura.”

“I’m Keith.”

“Nice to meet you, Keith. Sorry about the circumstances.”

“What happened?”

A dawn of realization crossed her face. She pushed off of Keith and limped around the car and into the middle of the street. She looked up and down the empty road. Allura moved a few more steps toward the end of the street before she shouted a name.

“Coran!” Her accent was apparent now, and thick with worry. Keith watched as her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “Coran?” she called again. Her voice echoed. With a heavy heart, Allura sighed and wobbled back to Keith, who gave her a confused expression.

“Coran is… my uncle,” she explained, unsure of the title to give to her guardian, “We were trying to flee our apartment a few blocks over when this… thing jumped in front of us out of nowhere. The last thing I remember was our car hitting it and flipping forward,” she motioned to the upturned car.

“Did you see what it looked like?” Keith asked, a haunting feeling of knowing overshadowing his fear.

Allura shook her head. “It was too dark to see. The red made it look all black. At first glance, I thought it was a dog.”

Keith remembered the footage of the dog that was seen on the car. The car that belonged to Allura. 

_Bingo._

As if it sensed Keith’s realization, a creature slipped out from underneath the car. It moved erratically out from under the roof of the car and slid along the asphalt. The shadow passed by Keith’s shoe and made him feel a shiver. 

Keith took Allura’s arm gently and pulled her toward the sidewalk. She was about to protest his touch when they both started to hear electric whispers. Keith’s eyes never left the shadow as it danced along the road and into the middle of the street. Slowly, it moved upward, its black figure bubbled above the street until it created its destined shape of a dog. Seeing it in a video did not prepare Keith for seeing it in real life. 

It reeked of sulfur, and as it grew, the electric whispers grew louder. Keith could feel the static lift his hair and hear its cackles in his ears. The dog went from a sitting position to all fours, and although the creature did not have eyes, Keith could still feel its menacing gaze. It walked in front of them in an arch like a wolf, but its body was wrong. It looked flat against the buildings behind it and cast no shadow. It was as dark as pitch. It looked wrong, like an empty space. A void. 

Keith let go of Allura, a small shock disconnecting them, and stepped in front of her. The whispers got louder in his ear as he slowly reached for Shiro’s knife in his pocket. 

“Keith –“ Allura started but didn’t finish.

The creature lunged at them.

It took most of Keith’s willpower to not run away and instead step forward and jab the knife at the vanta black. Keith could feel the knife come into contact with it, but it was like stabbing honey. He pulled the knife out, a black ooze sticking to the blade as the creature shrieked and stumbled backward. The ooze dribbled down the blade and onto Keith’s. He could recognize the burning sensation, but he had no time to dwell on it. The creature lunged again and this time, Keith slashed at it, the knife leaving a clear trail against its black. The whispers howled as the two-dimensional figure fell backward and landed flush against the street.

The whispers stopped.

Keith could hear his own breathing and feel Allura behind him. He wiped the black ooze onto his pant leg and felt it burn through the fabric. Keith turned, and Allura seemed to be more shocked than scared.

“Was that what you saw?” It took her a moment, but Allura nodded. “We’ve seen them around the city, and a day ago, those things took a few of our friends.”

“We?”

Keith nodded but hesitated before he answered. “My friends and I lost people to these things, too. We’re actually looking for them today.” Keith ran his thumb up and down his ring finger, feeling the cool metal against his skin. Allura looked briefly at the ring on his finger and understood.

“I’m sorry for your lost, Keith.”

Keith didn’t respond. Allura looked like she was going to say something more, but stopped. Her somber expression changed to fear. She pointed behind Keith and shouted, “Look out!”

Keith turned slowly and caught a glimpse of the black shadow before his head met the concrete edge of the sidewalk.

His vision spun as the creature scratched at his clothes and dripped the black burning ooze onto him. Static entered Keith's mind as he struggled against it, trying to punch the thing off of him, to no avail. His fist went straight through it and he couldn’t hear Allura’s voice over the shrieking electric crackling.

Allura tried to rip the creature off of him, but her hands sank into its inky black.

Keith struggled against his blackening vision for Shiro’s knife. He popped it back open and jammed the blade into the creature’s head. The cackling whispers stopped abruptly. The creature melted around the blade and its liquid body coated Keith in a burning ash.

The blade dropped to the street as Keith tried to get as much of the liquid ash off of him. Allura helped him to a sitting position as wiped what she could with her hand. Her wrist was burning, her hand was starting to burn, but Keith had saved her. This is the least she could do.

The black had seeped into Keith’s clothing and created a few holes. It stopped burning after a few minutes, and through the holes, he could see that his pale skin was an irritated red. Keith took in a pained breath.

_Breathe. Focus._

Keith grabbed Shiro’s knife off the street as Allura helped him to his feet. The blade was bent at the tip and a piece of it was chipped in the middle. His clothes looked like he rolled in a tar pit, and he could feel something wet on the back of his head. With a withdrawn sigh, Keith folded the knife in as best as he could and shoved it in his pant pocket.

“We need to get out of here,” Allura said. Keith squinted in the red darkness and took a few steps forward to see the clock on Volt Electric. 11:52. “I don’t know how many of those things are out here.”

“I still have one more thing I need to check out.”

Allura gave him a flat look. “You’re in no shape to be fighting those… creatures right now.”

Keith huffed, annoyed. “I only need to look in the next street over.”

“I just came from that way. I didn’t see anything except an empty subway terminal and an emptier street.” 

Keith looked at Allura, long and hard. He tried to find a lie in her sharp features. After a tense moment, his search came up negative. He relented.

“Alright, I believe you.”

“Thank you.”

“Will you be able to walk a few blocks? My friend’s van is parked behind a liquor store off the main street.”

Allura limped forward a few steps in front of Keith. She turned around with a pained smile. “I might be able to manage.”

Keith huffed out a breath.  He walked to her and slung her arm over his shoulder. The two walked the backstreets back toward the liquor store. Keith learned that Allura was his age, and had just graduated recently from a vocational nursing school near the west side of town. She told him that her injuries were minimal and that an ice pack wrap and cleaning ointments will help the both of them out. Keith told her that he and his husband had a “heavy-duty” first-aid kit in their home.

When they made it back to the van, Pidge was already slumped in the driver’s seat while Lance leaned against the passenger door, his arms crossed and fingers drumming on his arm nervously.

Lance saw movement from the corner of his eyes. He had a heated statement on his tongue because Keith was five minutes late, and Pidge and Lance were worried, but the statement fizzled out when he saw Keith’s appearance.

“What the heck happened to you?” Lance asked. His eyes took in Keith’s ruined clothes, and then the arm that was around his shoulder and attached to an injured woman. Lance spluttered his next question. “Who is that?”

Allura gave him a sheepish wave. Pidge had turned around in her seat and saw Keith and a stranger. Pidge crawled over the front seat to hand out the passenger window.

“Who is that?” Pidge echoed.

“Guys, this is Allura,” Keith introduced, “Allura, this is Lance. The gremlin in the window is Pidge.” Allura chuckled at that, and Keith felt a little better about himself.

“Are you okay?” Pidge asked, eyeing her various scrapes and the ankle Allura refused to put pressure on.

“I will be,” she answered.

“It’s nice to meet you, Allura,” Lance took her good hand gently and shook. “I’m sorry about the circumstances.”

“Funny, I told Keith the same thing.” Lance smiled at that. 

“Did you guys find anything?” Keith asked. The barely-lightened mood shifted.

“No,” Lance said curtly. He didn’t want to talk about the body he saw in the fountain. “I found two snake shadows but when I shined a light on them, they squiggled back into the pits of the drainage.”

“Negative,” Pidge said. The university was barren. The doors were open, but there was not a soul in sight. “I didn’t even see any of the Vanta Black.”

“But it looks like you have.” Lance raised an eyebrow. Pidge adjusted her glasses to get a closer look at Keith.

“Jesus H. Christ,” Pidge breathed.

“Those things are hard to kill,” Keith fished out Shiro’s knife from his pocket. He had to force it open to show the damage. “Their blood burns you on contact and their bodies aren’t solid. It’s a viscous mass, something similar to honey.” 

“That’s really interesting,” Pidge said.

“That’s really weird.” Lance corrected.

Keith shrugged as he gazed at Shiro’s knife. He regretted the use of it in a fight. There was no way to repair it, but he wondered if the blade could be replaced. Maybe it could be saved if Keith could pop open the handle. Keith felt a wave of sadness wash over him. Shiro’s knife was broken, but at least his gun was still functioning. Keith hadn’t ruined that yet. Keith squeezed his eyes shut and the squeezed the knife. The handle dug into his raw palm. Keith heard his ring crack under the pressure and he relaxed. He looked at the ring, and it wasn’t broken. Instead, he imagined the words written on the other side: _Until Death._

They heard the city’s siren echo through the streets. The vibrations shook the various trinkets on Pidge’s dashboard. After the sound finished, they all heard the echoes of talking soldiers.

“Guess it’s time we get out of here.” Pidge wormed her way back into the driver’s seat.

Lance opened the door for Keith and Allura. Keith helped Allura inside while Lance made sure the two of them didn’t topple over. Keith helped Allura into the backseat and helped her move her legs onto the torn leather. The siren wailed again as Keith shut the door and Lance climbed into the passenger seat. Pidge took the gravel road out of the city and the long way to Keith’s neighborhood. 

“I think we should make a record of these creatures,” Pidge started. “Like, if we encounter one, remember how it moved, what it looked like. How it was killed. Things like that.”

“Like a monster book?” Lance asked. Pidge nodded.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Allura said, “Keith already killed one.”

“Great,” Lance said in a cheery tone, “He gets the first page.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Such an honor.”

Pidge reached over to her glove compartment. The door of it slammed onto Lance’s lap. He yelped in surprise as Pidge fished out a small sketchbook, and in its spiral, a pen. She tossed it to the back and Keith caught it before it could fall to the floor.

“Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Keith said flatly. Keith flipped through the pages, skipping over notes and sketches and finding a blank page. In neat handwriting, he wrote:

 

DOG – VANTA BLACK

 

Underneath, he scribbled a basic, angular dog-like outline.

 

SIZE OF A LARGE DOG. LABRADOR?

BLEEDS BLACK. SMELLS LIKE SULFUR.

BLOOD BURNS ON SKIN AND CLOTHES.

 

Keith wrote the word “died” and underlined it twice.

 

DIED: STABBED IN THE HEAD W/ KNIFE.

 

“Here Lance, draw the snakes.” Keith passed the sketchbook and pen over. Lance looked at Keith’s drawing and laughed. Keith went red. “I’d like to see you do better.”

“I can’t,” he wheezed, “This monster book is going to look like a bunch of five-year-olds made it.”

Allura chuckled as Pidge breathed out, “Oh, brother.”

Lance finished his “S” snake drawing as Pidge pulled into Keith’s driveway. The four of them got out, and this time, Lance helped Allura out as Keith unlocked his door.

“Fair warning, Allura, it’s not usually this messy.”

Allura raised an eyebrow as Keith opened his front door. The living room as a mess of bowls, spoons, and mugs. Pidge’s laptop sat whirring on a pile of white blankets, and a vanilla scent dusted the smell of feet. 

“Looks… homey?” Allura offered as a compliment. Keith let out a quick, airy chuckle.

“Go ahead and sit on the lounge chair, I’ll get the first-aid kit.”

Lance helped Allura into the chair as Pidge walked with Keith into the kitchen. Pidge ran the tap for a glass of water to give to Allura while Keith bent under the island. He pulled out a drawer and a large, white medical kit filled most of the space. He dug out the kit and walked back to the living room to give it to Allura.

“Thank you, Pidge, Keith, and Lance,” Allura said softly, smiling.

Lance rubbed his upper lip and looked away, embarrassed. “It’s no problem.”

Allura went to work on disinfecting her scrapes and cleaning the dried blood on her upper lip. Lance helped her wrap her ankle as Keith and Pidge sat on the pullout bed, radio in hand. 

Keith turned it on, the static making Lance and Allura jump before he lowered the volume. He messed with its antenna and tuned until the news was clear.

“The time is 12:30 p.m. The military reminds you that the curfew is in effect immediately. Any resident caught outside after curfew will be subjected to questions and fines up to $500. Footage has caught black figures moving across town. We advise caution if you are to come in contact with one. Alert the military immediately by dialing 681 on a pay phone or landline. Cell phone towers will be down indefinitely. There has been no word from Volt Electric when the city will be back in full power.

People have been reported missing, and the list is as follows:”

“Missing?” Lance said. The women listed off names of men, women, and children. Unsurprisingly, the names of their loved ones were not mentioned. They never reported them missing.

“If you have seen any of these people, please alert the proper authorities. Our reports say that people have stumbled upon bodies. Do not hesitate to call 681 or 911. Through this tough time, Voltron City will be stronger together.”

“Did she say…”

“Bodies?”

Lance went cold.

The radio cut to a lady, her voice frantic as she switched between English and her native language. _“Please, help us._ My daughter is missing and she’s pregnant! She’s dark-skinned _and very beautiful._ She has long black hair and was wearing a striped shirt with grey sweatpants. _Her baby is due next month. She cannot walk on her own.”_ Keith gritted his teeth as the woman sobbed. His heart lurched.

The radio cut again to another person, this time a man. “I found a body the other day when I was leaving work. He was about mid-fifties and paler than the moon. Another one showed up on the street leading to the highway, a kid. It was horrifying. I alerted the military. My only hope is that the bodies are returned to their families for burial.”

Keith felt anger boil in his head. Fear had sunk its teeth deep in his stomach as Keith clenched his hands together. 

Keith got up, tuning out the radio and heading upstairs.

“Keith, what’s going on, man?” Worry laced Lance’s voice and it made Keith stop in his tracks.

Keith gripped the railing of his staircase, his knuckles turning white.

“I have to change.”

Lance narrowed his eyes as he got up. “You need to get healed up.” He could see the dried blood in Keith’s hair, and his burned skin hasn’t been touched by a healing hand.

Tears brimmed Keith’s eyes at the thought of Shiro coming back in a body bag. The thought of never seeing Shiro alive again scared him to death. Keith remembered his dream.

Keith coughed to clear his throat but it didn’t work. He managed to choke out: 

“We don’t have the luxury to wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will I get sued? Comment below.


	4. Seek and Destroy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith, Lance, and Pidge set out to find their missing loved ones again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> B E W A R E! The following tags: character injury, erotic asphyxiation, strangulation, clones, and body horror come into play.
> 
> Y'all already know.

_ Fail-safe trigger, lock down call / Wipe the dry clean-slate, quick, sound the alarm / No escape from the truth and the weight of it all / I am caught in the web of a lie _

Keith changed into a black fishnet top under a red shirt. He tugged on black jeans and grabbed his leather jacket from a chair in the corner of the room. It smelled faintly of Shiro’s cologne and cigarette smoke. He discarded Shiro’s broken knife on the seat of the chair and readjusted the gun’s holster to where the gun sat comfortably on his left side. He needed to replace Shiro’s pocket knife with something studier – something more efficient. He could use the Glock, but he’s not trained in using any type of gun. He could shoot stationary cans on a good day, but moving targets?  _ I’m better with a knife anyway.  _ Before he left the room, he eyed his leather jacket that sat forgotten on a chair. He grabbed it and shrugged it on. He hoped the leather would take the scratches from the vanta black.

Downstairs, Pidge, Lance, and Allura were talking quietly amongst themselves . K eith ignored their worried glances as he made his way toward the basement. After it allows him access, his footsteps creaked under the wood. The backup generator hummed quietly in the corner as he walked to Shiro’s work desk. Keith shuffled through the various tool boxes, screws, bullets and replacement blades until he found what he was looking for: his bowie knif e.

In total, the knife was about fifteen inches long. It had been in his mother’s possession until she had passed away; and now, with his father gone, it was in Keith’s possession. From what he knew about the specific make of the blade, it was made for fighting. The handle fits comfortably in his hand, and the gold-colored crossguard was thick enough to shield Keith’s slim fingers. With a clatter, he removed the knife from the table and held it in his hands. The steel was a bit dusty and the black grip worn. Keith wiped the blade on his pant leg before he dragged the blade across the tip of his finger. It left a thin red trail. Satisfied, Keith fetched the sheath from its bin and tied the leather into his belts loops before he slid the knife into the sheath. Keith cleaned and sloppily put a band-aid on his finger before he headed back upstairs.

Lance was handing Allura a bowl of soup when Keith entered the living area. Pidge was reloading her gun with shaking hands. The air was tense. Keith tried to come up with something to say but fell short. He didn’t know what to say. Shiro was missing. Hunk, Matt, and Coran were missing. There were no signs of any of them. Keith didn’t know where to start looking, and going into the city blindly without a plan was no longer a viable option.

After a long silence, Keith finally said, “We should report them missing.”

The first to look at him was Lance. His eyes were watery and his expression grave. Reporting them missing would make it official.

They’re really gone.

Pidge sniffled. “Do you think it’ll help?”

“I think it would,” Allura said. She took a spoonful of soup and minded her manners. “If they’re found, they wouldn’t go unidentified. When we go back into the city, we can stop by a checkpoint to report them.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Pidge said as she turned her safety on. “If we don’t find them, at least they will… and vice versa.”

“Do you think we can really find them?” Lance asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Keith’s heart skipped a beat.

“Yes,” he said. Lance looked at him, eyes pleading for a realistic answer. “We found their stuff, Lance. They have to be somewhere,” he wasn’t sure about that, “Like I said, people don’t disappear. We’ll find them, Lance,” Keith hesitated to say the last part. “We’ll find him.”

Keith watched as Lance took in a deep breath.

Allura placed a hand on Lance’s knee for reassurance.

“We’ll find him, Lance. Hunk is more than capable to put up a fight.” Keith saw a memory dance in Lance’s eyes before he eventually smiled.

“Thanks, man.”

Keith nodded before he turned his attention to Pidge. “Are you ready?” She tapped the holster on her thigh with her hand and nodded. “Allura, we’re going back into the city. You’re free to stay –“

“I’m going with you,” she handed Lance her empty bowl, “Coran is still out there.”

“Can you walk?”

Keith and Lance moved as Allura stood up from the pullout couch. She winced slightly but walked over to the door with only a slight limp. She turned around with her hands on her hips.

“Is that proof enough?” she asked. The group of friends looked at each other and shrugged.

“Do you have something to fight with?”

Keith watched as Allura bent down and rolled up her jeans. He could see a thin cylinder in her sock. He watched with one eyebrow raised as she brandished it before them. She pressed a button Keith didn’t see and the metal cylinder expanded into a rod almost as tall as she was.

Pidge whistled.

“It’s a prototype, but its blunt.”

Pidge leaned forward and adjusted her glasses to get a better look. “What exactly is  _ it?” _

“It’s a robotic rod I developed with Coran. It can also work as a taser, but that feature is currently on and off. If it works, I can shock those monsters. If not, at least I can hit them with a blunt force.” Allura explained. She clicked the button again and the rod shifted back into a small cylinder. She slipped it back in her sock before she fixed her pants.

“Alright then,” Lance said, taking the keys from Keith’s jacket pocket and headed out the door. “Let’s go, crew.”

The four of them drove back into the city as the tornado siren echoed throughout the city. They stopped by a checkpoint, flashing their phones with photos of Shiro, Hunk, Matt, and Coran and told them their ages, heights and approximate weights. Afterward, they drove back through the backroads and parked at the liquor store again.

“Same as last time?” Lance asked with an arm over the middle seat in the front to address Pidge.

Pidge looked at Keith. “Yeah, same as last time. Maybe try scouting outside of the areas we were at last time.”

“If you encounter one of those things, only engage if it attacks first,” Keith warned, “Don’t be stupid.”

“Don’t be stupid. Got it,” Lance finger-gunned Keith with a lopsided smile. Pidge rolled her eyes as Allura let out a soft chuckle. Keith exited the van.

The air was eerily still. Keith couldn’t hear any signs of life: the army, the birds, strays, or rats. He could faintly hear a few cars from the highway. The only sound he could hear was the sounds of his friends and the van’s doors slamming. Keith looked toward the alleyway exit, and through the red, he could see a tall, familiar shadow.

His friends’ voices became background noise. Keith could hear his blood rush to his ears as he approached the figure. His footsteps seemed quiet despite the weight of his boots. The figure shimmered in the red lighting briefly, the black becoming almost transparent before it disappeared completely. Keith was about to take another step toward it when Lance called his name.

He turned and met the questioning glances of three pairs of eyes.

“We’re going in pairs, Keith,” Lance informed him, “So wait up, would you?” Keith blushed, embarrassed. He turned toward where the figure was, and down the street, he saw it again.

“We’re meeting back here in two hours,” Pidge said as she walked up to Allura, “Good luck you guys.”

“You too,” Lance waved as he followed Keith down the street.

“Is this where you went last time?” Lance asked. The alley had led to a dark side street. The black windows reflected them and made him feel uneasy.

Keith followed the figure. The red light made everything urgent. Keith felt he had to follow this figure. An invisible pull kept his pace brisk to the point where he was beginning to sweat in his clothes. His breaths started to become short and pained the deeper the two went into the maze that was Voltron city. Lance had been trying to ask Keith where they were going, but Keith couldn’t hear him. He focused on the moving shadow, its familiar silhouette leading him to an empty part of town.

Keith turned another corner and abruptly stopped. Lance ran into his back, but Keith didn’t move. His body turned stiff at the sight before him.

The street was covered in black. Keith couldn’t make out the outlines of the sidewalk or the buildings. He couldn’t see what was immediately before him in the red lighting. The black swirled up into the sky, blocking out the blood red sky. In the black, Keith could hear the electric whispers of the vanta black.

Keith stepped forward as Lance cocked the shotgun.

His shoe sank into wet ash and it collected in clumps at his soles. A feeling of dread overcame him as he took another step. His ears were ringing with the sound of the electricity and he could feel his hair slowly lift up due to static. He could feel Lance’s hold on his leather jacket, but the grip was weak. Keith walked deeper into the darkness. Its hold on him constricted his breathing and Keith started to pant. His lungs squeezed uncomfortably and his throat constricted. The darkness was getting to him, but something kept Keith in the void. He felt the floor shift underneath him from a flat plane to small bumps and after a few strides, Keith could finally see something in the swirling black: a familiar white.

Keith ran, his movements far too slow for his usual run. His shoes felt like lead and his vision was spinning but he ran anyway. He slid on his knees to a stop just before a familiar body.

Shiro laid cold and lifeless in the ash. His body was splayed out and his clothes were stained black and red. Shiro’s hair stuck to his face wetly and there were scratch marks at his throat. His skin was a sickly pale. Keith put an ear to Shiro’s chest and underneath the mass of muscle was a steady heartbeat. Tears flooded Keith’s eyes as he clenched Shiro’s shirt in his fists.

He was alive. Shiro was alive.

Keith turned his head and he could feel his tears stream down his face. “Shiro,” he called out softly. Keith reached out with a shaking hand to caress his husband’s cold face. Keith stroked Shiro’s cheek with his thumb as his lip began to tremble. “Takashi?” Shiro’s nose twitched and Keith let out a sigh of relief.

_ He’s alive. _

Keith breathed out as he sat up. Steady and with a grunt, Keith moved Shiro’s left arm over his shoulder while Lance rounded the other side to Shiro’s right arm. The two men carefully lifted up Shiro with pained grunts – Shiro weighed more than the two of them combined, but they’ll be damned if they left him in here.

Walking out of the void made Keith’s head spin as the swirling black came to a stagnant halt. The electric whispers followed them on their way out, but nothing that lurked in the flat darkness made a move to attack. Instead, the creatures watched with curiosity as the three men left their eerie home.

Sweat dribbled down Keith faces as they walked the red streets back. Shiro opened his eyes and lazily looked at Keith.

“Keith?” he mouthed. Keith felt his breath and looked at Shiro, his heart swelling.

“We’re almost to safety, Takashi. Just a little bit longer,” Keith told him, his voice thick with unheard sobs. Shiro nodded lazily and tried his best to walk. He fumbled a bit, but Keith was there to catch him.

“Shiro, you got to stop working out, man,” Lance huffed, “You weigh a ton.”

Shiro let out a weak chuckle. “I’ll keep that in mind, Lance,” he said, voice hoarse.

When they made it to the van, the back doors were wide open. Pidge and Allura were sitting in the trunk space with a body. Keith whistled to get their attention.

Pidge’s head snapped up as Allura administered first aid to a cut on Matt’s face. Keith watched as Pidge took in the sight between Lance and him. She scrambled out of the van and ran toward Shiro, her short body roughly embracing the older man. Pidge was sobbing as she let go of Shiro to hug Keith. Keith buried his cheek in her hair.

“I found Matt,” she hiccupped, “You found Shiro.” Keith’s heart swelled. He swallowed his emotions whole.

“Let’s take them home.”

Keith and Lance helped Shiro into the back of the van. The third and second-row seats were folded into the floor to make a flat surface. They laid him down alongside a half-conscious Matt. Pidge sat with Matt’s head on her lap and stroked his long hair away from his face. Keith sat next to Shiro’s head, his leg stretched out to create a barrier between him and Matt. Keith threaded his fingers through Shiro’s tangled hair. Lance took the passenger side while Allura drove. Lance directed her when he needed too, but he spent most of the ride back looking longingly at his friends. He briefly made eye contact with Shiro. Something black reflected in his eyes, but Lance thought nothing of it. Lance stifled a yawn.

The tornado siren echoed through the neighborhood when they got back to Keith and Shiro’s home. Matt could walk for the most part, but Pidge slung an arm around his waist just in case. Keith helped Shiro through the door. The group decided to take a break. Allura and Lance went into the kitchen while Pidge and Keith helped Matt and Shiro upstairs. Pidge led Matt to the guest bedroom with the promise of clothes for Matt hanging in the spare closet. Keith walked Shiro into their bedroom and into the master bathroom.

Keith helped Shiro out of his clothes and into the tub. Keith shrugged off his jacket and discarded it on the floor along with his knife and the gun. He pushed up his mesh long sleeves to his elbows and ran the tap until it was half full. With nervous hands and a soapy sponge, Keith bathed Shiro.

Keith cleaned the caked on dirt, dried blood, and ash from Shiro’s body. The harsh sound of running water almost drowned out Shiro’s words of encouragement. His arms lay limply at his sides, but nothing appeared to be broken. His prosthetic had seen better days, but when Shiro pushed Keith’s bangs behind his ears, Keith knew it was still working. It didn’t cause Shiro any pain, and that’s what mattered the most. Keith carefully cleaned it and Shiro’s body, tracing familiar scars and his birthmark.

Keith frowned.

_ I thought his birthmark was on his back shoulder. _

Keith grabbed the shower head and rinsed off Shiro’s body, taking note of every scar and new mark on the toned muscle. Shiro’s back shoulder didn’t have a birthmark. It was on his stomach. Keith squeezed his eyes shut as he washed Shiro’s hair.

_ You’re tired, Keith. It’s been a long day. _

Keith finished washing the dirt and blood from Shiro’s hair. Keith was about to dry Shiro off, but Shiro took the towel and kissed Keith on the forehead.

“I got it from here, baby, take a shower and I’ll meet you in the bedroom.”

Keith showered, the water steaming and causing the mirror to fog up. Keith washed off the sweat from his body. Something didn’t sit right with him. He couldn’t explain the nerves unfolding in his stomach. He found Shiro, but something was wrong. It nagged him until the water began to fluctuate temperatures, indicating the hot water was running out or someone was also taking a shower. Keith turned off the water and dried his hair with his towel. Stray droplets of water dripped off of him as he walked into the bedroom.

Shiro was waiting for him at the edge of the bed, eyes never leaving his frame. Keith ignored his husband’s stare and slipped on a pair of underwear and a nightshirt that had once been Shiro’s. Keith dried his hair one last time before he joined Shiro on the bed.

Keith didn’t know where to start.

_ Are you hurt? _

_ How are you doing? _

_ Where have you been? _

_ It’s been two days since you were gone. _

_ Why is your birthmark on your stomach? _

_ I missed you.  _

_ I love you. _

Instead of voicing his thoughts, Keith leaned over and rested his head on Shiro’s shoulder. A tear slipped out, and then another until the tears poured in a steady stream. An overwhelming feeling of relief washed over him. Shiro pulled Keith into his lap and cradled his husband as Keith sobbed. His cries echoed faintly in the bedroom. He sniffled and hiccupped, and his body shook from the sheer relief of Shiro in his arms.

Shiro ran his fingers through Keith’s wet hair and kissed him every time Keith choked on a sob. When Keith was done, tears stained his face as he pulled away. A swarm of questions bloomed on his features as Shiro ran his thumbs over Keith’s cheeks.

“I missed you so much,” Shiro whispered as he put his forehead against Keith’s. Keith sniffled and wrapped his arms around Shiro’s neck.

“I missed you more,” Keith croaked out.

Shiro leaned forward and kissed Keith, his lips soft. Keith kissed him back slowly. Keith ran his fingers over Shiro’s buzzcut as Shiro played with Keith’s hair. Keith pushed himself against Shiro’s bare chest and felt his husband’s warmth through his shirt. In one swift move, Shiro pushed Keith onto his back and deepened the kiss. Shiro’s hands slowly ran down Keith’s torso until he could slip his hands underneath Keith’s shirt. Shiro rubbed Keith’s body as Keith swiped his tongue over Shiro’s bottom lip.

Shiro opened his mouth and the two kissed deeply. Shiro ran his thumbs over Keith’s nipples. Keith moaned softly and felt blood rush to his member. Shiro ground his hips into Keith’s, and Keith could feel how hard Shiro was through his briefs.

“I missed you,” Shiro breathed in his ear.

The two roamed each other’s bodies with their hands and their lips; Keith bit into Shiro’s neck and sucked softly, running his tongue over the irritated flesh. Shiro’s right hand made its way to Keith’s neck as Shiro straddled Keith.

Shiro squeezed and Keith started to see white. His breathing hitched as he rolled his hips upward, enjoying the feeling of being choked. Keith moaned as Shiro took him into his hands and slowly started to pump. Keith opened his eyes to smile up at Shiro, to caress his face, but Shiro’s face was twisted.

His smirk sat a little too far to the left and his nose began to crumble. His eyes rolled back to reveal black scleras. Keith gasped and choked on his own spit when Shiro’s squeeze tightened.

Keith felt his blood heat up as he panicked. He thrashed on the bed, choking on his pleas for Shiro to  _ stop, _ but he couldn’t make out the words. Keith dug his nails into Shiro’s flesh arm and scratched. Shiro hissed as his grip on Keith’s throat tightened, but in the pale red light of their bedroom, Keith didn’t mistake the black blood oozing from where his nails dug into Shiro’s skin.

Keith could feel himself suffocate. Shiro opened and opened and opened his mouth, his jaw bone snapping with how wide his mouth grew. Keith started to see white as black dripped onto his chest. His scream was hoarse as the substance burned through his shirt and onto his skin. He desperately clawed at the thing on top of him, but his strength was inching away. Keith heard the doorknob of his bedroom move, and the door roughly shoved open.

“Keith!” Lance screamed.

Keith heard the loud  _ bangs!  _ of a gun go off. Shiro hissed as the shots blasted straight through his prosthetic arm and his shoulder.

Keith gasped for air and rolled away from Shiro. Allura grabbed Keith and pulled him from the bed as another shot rang out in the room.

Keith watched as Shiro crumbled into wet ash and inky blood, much like the dog Keith had stabbed only hours ago. Keith watched in horror as Shiro disappeared behind the vantage point of their bed. Keith’s bed.

The room reeked of sulfur.His ears started to ring.

Keith tensed when Allura tried to get Keith off of the bed.

Keith used his elbow to keep her hand away from him. Lance tried to grab him, but Keith barreled toward the opposite edge of the bed.

Where Shiro once stood was a black stain on the carpet.

Keith felt tears well in his eyes again, and instead of from sadness, from frustration.

“You shot him,” Keith said through gritted teeth. He clutched the bedsheets and hung his head, not wanting to look at the stain, or at Lance or Allura. “He was right there, Lance. You killed him. He’s – He’s –“

Lance balled the back of Keith’s shirt in his fist and forced Keith to sit up. “That wasn’t Shiro, Keith.”

Keith shook his head as he buried the palms of his hands into his eyes to stop the tears from falling.

“That was one of the vanta black, and it almost killed you using Shiro’s face.”

Keith coughed roughly, his throat burning from the strangulation. He could still feel Shiro’s fingers around his neck and the spots they were at pulsed with rapid pain.

“He was right there,” Keith whispered, “He was right there and it wasn’t him.” Keith broke into a sob, and it hurt. His throat was in immense pain, and his heart ached. He felt numb as he watched Lance shoot Shiro behind his eyelids. The blood had been black, and his onyx eyes had been black. His birthmark was in the wrong spot, and Shiro was moving as if he weren’t missing or found seemingly lifeless in a dark void.

Lance sat on the bed next to Keith. He switched the gun’s safety on and sat next to Keith. With a sigh, Lance wrapped his friend in a tight hug. Allura watched from the side, a look of pity on her sharp features.

“I kissed him, Lance. I thought, I thought it was him,” he rambled. Keith’s tried to get his feelings in check to no avail. His body shook from withholding his frustrated cry. That thing didn’t deserve anything but the death it got: a bullet through its head. “It felt like him, it looked like him. He knew – it knew what I liked I thought…”

Lance hushed him.

“We’re going to find the real Shiro, Keith. You know your husband. You know Shiro.” Keith only nodded. Lance let go of him and ushered Keith to change shirts. Allura took her leave and Lance helped Keith into a clean hoodie and new pair of underwear. Lance fished out a pair of basketball shorts, and Keith put them on without a second thought.

Banging footsteps made their way up the staircase. Both boys turned to see Pidge, her face wild.

“Guys, outside. It’s Hunk. Hunk is outside.”

Lance grabbed his gun on his way out.

Keith shut his heart and ran to the bathroom to grab his knife. He left his bedroom with a promise that what happened to him wasn’t going to happen to Lance.

When Keith got outside, Hunk was at the edge of the sidewalk with his hands up. Black stains littered his shirt and pants, but other than that, he seemed fine. Lance glared at Hunk, gun pointed. Pidge was hitting Lance on his back and trying to push the gun down, but Lance wouldn’t budge. Keith stood a few steps away from Lance, knife out.

“Are you guys nuts?! That’s Hunk!” Pidge yelled.

“No offense Pidge, but I just had to shoot an imposter Shiro for almost killing Keith.”

Pidge choked on her “What?” and looked to Keith. Keith pursed his lips and nodded. Surprise flashed on her features and then fear. She backed down.

“Lance, are you crazy! You’re really going to shoot me?!” Hunk stammered out. He was looking down the barrel of his lover’s gun.

“A fucking creature disguised as Shiro almost killed Keith in his bedroom, so I apologize,” he spat. Keith’s eyes flashed to Lance briefly, and he could see the tense knots form in Lance’s shoulders. His aim was steady, but his knuckles turned white from gripping the gun to hard. Keith wasn’t sure if Lance was going to be able to shoot.

“How do I know it’s you?” Lance asked Hunk.

Hunk frowned. “You own RIPTIDE.”

Lance readjusted his fingers on his gun. He licked his lips. “You’re going to have to do better than that, Hunk.” Keith saw the lull in his Lance’s guard as his aim slumped. “Don’t make me shoot you, Hunk. Come on, man, give me something. Anything.” He pleaded.

“When you were eighteen, you were going to move out of your house but your dad was against that because you paid the bulk of the bills. When you pushed past him he was going to grab you,” a flash of hurt shimmered in Lance’s eyes at the memory, “but I stopped him. I didn’t punch your dad for you to be pointing a gun at me.”

Tears welled in Lance’s eyes as he dropped the gun and ran across the yard. Hunk braced himself and caught Lance when he leaped onto him. Lance wrapped his legs around Hunk’s waist and his arms around his neck. His tears flowed freely as he buried his face into his neck.

“I’m sorry,” he cried, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeated in a mantra. Keith lowered the knife as he watched Hunk bury his head into Lance’s shoulder. Lance kissed his face over and over, not caring about the dirt and sweat build up. Hunk threaded his fingers together and adjusted Lance to where he could hold him safely.

After Hunk and Lance exchanged a quiet promise, everyone headed back inside. The living room was full now, all the chairs and spaces taken. Matt had cleaned up and was fast asleep on the pull-out couch. Hunk sat in the chair by the fireplace with Lance on his lap. Allura and Pidge occupied the lounge chair, leaving Keith to stand up.

“So,” Pidge started, “Where have you been?”

Hunk thought about the answer to that question. “I don’t know,” he answered truthfully, “I remember being swallowed by that… whatever it was. The next thing I know, I’m in front of Lance’s apartment.”

_ He doesn’t remember? _

“I only remember a burning sensation. The rest is just blank.”

Pidge reached over herself and grabbed her laptop. “Matt had a similar experience except he was laying across a table at a coffee shop,” Pidge looked at her brother with a worried glance. “He doesn't remember anything except a burning sensation.”

“You don’t feel any different, do you?” Lance asked from his spot on Hunk’s lap. Hunk held Lance’s hands in his own and shook his head.

“No. Just a bit sore, like I lifted too much weight. My ears feel a little clogged, though.”

“We have ear drops if you need it, Hunk,” Keith said. All eyes were on him. Keith rubbed his throat. His voice sounded strained and unintentionally harsh.

“That’s okay, Keith,” Hunk said quietly, remembering what Lance had said about Shiro, “I’m fine. Thank you.” Hunk could see the finger marks forming around Keith’s neck. He didn’t mean to look at Keith with pity.

Keith scowled.

“Are you alright?” Allura asked. Keith felt uncomfortable with all eyes on him,

“Just fine,” he croaked. “What’s the plan now?”

“Well,” Lance started, “Let’s all relax until dinner is ready, yeah? Allura and I are making soup, and it’ll be done in an hour.” Everyone made a noise of agreement.

Pidge flopped down on the pull-out couch next to her brother, who only snored. Lance and Hunk got up and made their way to the kitchen. Lance patted Keith’s back on his way in. Allura pulled out her phone and frowned.

“What is it?” Keith asked as he sat in the chair Hunk and Lance had occupied.

“There’s no service.”

“The towers are out. I tried contacting VoltElectric, but the lines were down.”

“Do you know what’s happening?” she asked.

Keith shrugged.

“We can’t make calls unless we drive to the person we want to talk to,” Pidge answered, “I talked to my parents the other day and told them about Hunk and Shiro,” Keith raised an eyebrow, “They’re good for now.”

“I called my dad before the sky turned red. He’s on a business trip right now and is supposed to fly in in a few days. I don’t want him to come back to… all this,” Allura said, “I want to warn him.”

“If you want, you can send him an email.”

“I thought the towers were down?” Keith smirked under a cough.

“They are, but I operate differently.” Pidge handed her laptop to Allura and walked her through how to access the network. Keith watched the two of them.

He could still feel Shiro’s fingers around his neck. He closed his eyes and sighed.

He was so close, but it wasn’t him. It felt like him. Talked like him. But it wasn’t Shiro.

_ I’m such an idiot. _

Keith rubbed his forehead. He could feel a headache form at the front of it.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Allura asked again.

“I’m fine, Allura,” Keith said with a little more bite. “I’m just – I’m just tired. I’ve been through worse.”

“Worse?” Pidge laughed.

Keith smiled a tired smile. “I use to fight a lot as a teenager.”

“He used to fight and  _ win, _ and also get suspended from school.”

“Wait,  _ in school?!” _ she sounded horrified, and Keith couldn’t help but laugh.

“Maybe it was the unchecked rage, but,” he shrugged, “I lost a tooth one time,” he cleared his throat as he pushed his finger between his lips to show Allura his silver tooth hidden behind his canine.

“Look at you being introspective,” Pidge teased, “’Maybe it was the unchecked rage,’” she repeated in a bad hoary tone.

“I do not sound like that,” Keith force out a laugh, “And I can be introspective. I’m an adult.” Pidge snorted. “At least trying to be anyway, you damn teenager.”

Pidge clutched her sides. “I’m almost twenty.”

“You’re so young, Pidge,” Allura said, “I thought you were Keith’s age.”

“Nah, I got at least five years on him. Shiro is the oldest out of all of us though.”

“He’s not that old.”

“He’s greying.”

Keith barked out a laugh. “When we find him, you should say that to his face.” Allura laughed.

“If you’re talking about old, my Uncle Coran is pushing sixty. His hair is dyed this absurd bright orange color. He also has this,” Allura put her forefinger to her upper lip, “thick mustache he’s had for years. It’s actually quite impressive.”

“No way, let me see!”

Keith went to crowd around Allura and Pidge as Allura showed them photos of her uncle. He was a tall, white man who looked healthy for his age. At first glance, Keith thought he was only in his forties. After a few photos, Lance and Hunk called everyone for dinner. Pidge woke up Matt by jumping on him. Keith laughed.

In the kitchen, Lance and Hunk had already readied bowls and spoons for their large group. Keith sat at the bar with Allura while Hunk, Lance, Pidge, and Matt sat at the table. Pidge shared her story on how she found Matt passed out in front of the coffee shop across from University Square.

“I really don’t remember how I got there. One moment, I’m with Shiro then I hear this electric whispering and then nothing. I wake up to Katie crying over me.”

Pidge flushed but no one said anything.

“I don’t remember anything either, man,” Hunk said, “I remember the car and pushing Lance away and then the next thing I know, Lance is pointing a gun at me.”

Lance flushed red with a mixture of shame and embarrassment. “Hey, we just had an imposter in our midst, okay? It was precautionary.”

“I know, my brave, brave man,” Hunk kissed Lance’s cheek. Pidge retched.

“A what?” Matt asked.

The room fell silent. Keith could feel five sets of eyes on him as he ate his soup. It pricked his skin, but he figured Matt needed to know. Keith wasn’t the only one in the room in love with his husband.

Keith wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“The Shiro we brought in wasn’t actually Shiro. It was one of the vanta black,” he said bitterly.

Matt looked at Pidge, confused.

“That’s what we decided to call them. They look flat against the world. It’s actually pretty unsettling.”

“Vantablack? Like the engineered color?”

Pidge nodded. “That’s where we got the name from.”

“Where did you find Shiro?” Matt turned to Keith and Lance shot him an uneasy glance.

Keith tried to recall the space. “It was like this... black void. It covered the entire street and I couldn’t see a thing. The flat ground went to hills and when that happened, I found Shiro. Well, the thing I thought was Shiro.”

“A black void?” Hunk echoed. “You walked in there alone?”

“No,” Lance answered, “I followed in after him.” Hunk moved his hand to Lance’s leg with a frown. “I figured he shouldn’t go in their alone. He fights with that big ass knife. I actually have a gun.”

“Nothing attacked us anyway,” Keith dismissed, “It was odd though.”

“Maybe that’s why you guys were gone for so long.”

Keith’s heart skipped a beat.

“What?” he said in unison with Lance.

“We were preoccupied with Matt,” Allura started, “but you guys were gone for a little over three hours.”

“Three hours?!” Lance said horrified. Suddenly, Keith wasn’t hungry anymore. A nauseous feeling settled in his stomach.

“This shit just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” Lance said.

“I’m sure these events will mess us up psychologically when it sinks in years later,” Hunk said as he finished the last of his bowl with a loud slurp.

“You’re probably right,” Matt said, thinking, “What do we know about the Vanta Black?”

Pidge hummed.

“Their blood hurts like hell,” Keith looked at the fading red of his fingers, “It burns clothes and skin on contact.”

“They come in a lot of shapes. So far we only encountered a dog and snake forms, though,” Lance added.

“They seem to come from complete darkness. The snakes came from sewers. Not too sure about the dog,” Pidge shrugged and looked to Keith for an answer.

“It was under a car. Stabbing those things in the head seemed to kill them though.”

“Kill? You’ve killed one?”

“It’s currently a one-to-one with me and Keith,” Lance said coolly, “Keith stabbed a dog in the head and I… I shot the Shiro look-alike.”

“What about the void space?” Matt looked at Keith. Keith traced Matt’s fresh scar on his cheek with his eyes.

“Time moves faster in it, I guess,” Keith nervously tied his hair back, but with no hair tie, he let it fall, “It’s covered in ash. I couldn’t tell what direction I was going in, but something pulled me to where Shiro was. I don’t know how to explain it.”

“What do you think these things want?” Hunk asked thoughtfully. Everyone looked at him. “If they can take on human forms, like Shiro, doesn’t that mean they want to rule the world or something?”

Everyone went quiet for a moment.

“It’s like  _ Invasion of the Body Snatchers,”  _ Keith said mostly to himself. Pidge hummed in agreement. “Except, I don’t know. I think it tried to eat me?”

Matt choked on his soup and everyone else looked to Keith, horrified.

“It dislocated its jaw and dripped its blood or something onto me. I didn’t really register it until now.”

“So these things want to eat us?” Lance rushed out. “Do you think it ate –“

“Lance!” Hunk, Pidge, Matt, and Allura hissed.

Keith’s heart squeezed in his chest as he felt his bile rush to his throat. Keith clutched the counter and shut his eyes.

_ Do you think it ate Shiro? _

“I’m sorry,” Lance whispered quietly.

Keith sighed. “It’s fine. It’s a possibility.” A possibility Keith didn’t want to think about. Keith looked at his ring for strength, the gold glittering dully in the dim lighting of his kitchen.

_ Until Death. _

_ But what about after? _

Allura hesitated, but she placed her hand over Keith’s. Her hand was warm and reassuring. “We should get some rest,” she said, “It’s been a long day.” No one argued with that.

Everyone helped to gather and wash the dirty dishes that littered the bottom floor of Keith’s house. Pidge and Matt laid claim to the pullout couch, and Lance offered the guest bedroom to Allura. She made a fuss because, “Really, Lance, Keith has a blow-up mattress I can take,” but even Keith wouldn’t hear of it. Allura took the guest bedroom while Hunk took the blow up mattress from the upstairs closet. Lance and Hunk took turns blowing it up with their mouths while Keith told everyone that they’re free to use any towels, clothes or anything else they might need without permission.

When everyone was fast asleep, Pidge was wide awake.

Anxious, she rolled off the pullout couch and grabbed her laptop, sitting in the far corner of the living room so that the light didn’t disturb her sleeping brother. She typed in various addresses to grab the live feed from the CCTV cameras around the city. She clicked through all of them, one by one, watching, waiting for something.

Nothing made sense and it unnerved her. Why were the vanta black here? What was their purpose?

She switched live feeds again, and this time, the camera was pointing to an abandoned subway on the south side of town. The stairs leading into the subway were black, and pixels distorted the swirls Keith had described. She watched as something entered from the corner of the screen. She zoomed out and gasped softly.

Multiple shapes of the vanta black walked toward the entrance, two of them dragging bodies. She watched in creeping horror as they disappeared into the void of the subway. Pidge shut her laptop quickly and ran to the bathroom, throwing up her dinner into the porcelain bowl.

_ At least,  _ she thought grimly,  _ we know where they’re coming from. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :-)


	5. The Vanta Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang prepares to go into the belly of the beast.

_ And the bitch of it all is that I’m running from / The desire of the people to whom I belong / At the end of the day you can tell me I’m wrong / ‘Cause you went to all of this trouble _

When Keith leaves his bedroom, his body feels like lead and his throat is sore. He gets dressed for the day and bypasses the mirror. He ties his hair up instead and heads downstairs. When he enters the kitchen and steps over the corner of the air mattress, he sees Pidge who has her laptop plugged in with a mug of coffee to her lips. Keith passes her to grab a mug for himself and pours himself a cup. When he finally looks at her, she’s worse for wear.

Pidge’s nightshirt stuck to her body and the bags under her eyes were more prominent than they were before. Her gaze never left her laptop. He was about to sit in a kitchen chair when her voice startles him.

“When everyone is awake, I need to show you all something.” Her voice is serious and sends a chill down Keith’s spine.

Keith doesn’t respond and instead pulls out a chair and sits. Pidge knows he heard her. Keith slowly and painfully drinks his coffee, the finger bruises on his throat are purplish-black and it hurts to breathe. Somewhere upstairs a door closes and light footsteps come down the stairs. Allura mumbles a quiet “good morning” and she’s in one of Keith’s shirts and a pair of his old boxers. Keith hears her greet Pidge and she sits across from him with her own mug of coffee. Hunk and Lance are the next to awaken, groggy and sore. Matt wakes up last.

When everyone is seated, either with coffee or a bowl of dry cereal, Pidge gets their attention by clearing her throat.

“I have something to show you all.”

Keith watched as she entered an address and links to CCTV cameras appeared on the page again. However, instead of clicking on multiple links, she clicks on one and maximizes the window. She hits ‘play’ and everyone watches the feed.

Keith’s coffee churns in his stomach as he sees the pixelated swirl of the dark void. The old subway system on the south side of town is black. His grip on his mug turns his knuckles white as he sees the vanta black creep into the subway. Two of the creatures are carrying bodies.

_ Bodies. _

The tense air in the room shifts to a silent shock. Bile rushes up Keith’s throat as he tries to speak.

“We have to follow them,” his voice cracks halfway through the sentence.

“Are you nuts?!” Lance shouts, fear laced with his words. “Do you want us to die?”

Keith sips on his coffee painfully. “Then I’ll go.”

“No. You’re not going,” Lance says.

Keith grits his teeth as anger bubbles on his nerves. “Shiro is still out there, Lance,” he cuts his friend a glare.

Lance challenges his glare by sending one back. “What are you going to do, huh? Walk into the fucking void with your stupid ass knife? Stab your way into the unknown until you get overpowered by those creatures?”

Keith slams his mug on the table. He doesn’t see Allura flinch. “Then what do you suggest, huh? That I fucking sit here and wait for Shiro to return like Hunk did? That we search the city again and maybe we’ll find him passed out like Matt?” His words tasted like venom and his body shook. Shiro’s voice echoed in his head:  _ Panic attack. _ Keith stood up.

“A thing wore Shiro’s body as a costume, Lance.” Keith’s eyes turned glassy and the fight in Lance’s expression softened. “We have to find him! I have to find him! He’s all I have left, Lance! He’s been the only thing keeping me in this fucking world and you want me to what? Wait around this house after you all leave? Sit here by myself and look at old photos? Twiddle my thumbs and wait for the police or the fucking army to knock at my door and ask me to identify his body on a morgue table?” Hot tears were streaming down his face again and he couldn’t help himself. Keith was angry and frustrated. Yesterday, Shiro held him in his arms and in the span of a few minutes, Shiro tried to kill him. He kissed him and then was shot dead.

Despite his sore throat, Keith continued. “Coran is still out there, too,” he added. Allura wiped her eyes. “Going in there is our only option. There is no other way.” His voice broke in half on the last syllable.

No one said anything.

“I think it’s worth a shot, Lance,” Allura started. Lance couldn’t meet her gaze. “It’ll be dangerous, but we still have people to find. We can go.” Keith watched as Lance shut his eyes and bit his lip.

Pidge took in a deep breath. “Shiro and Coran are still missing. This is the first solid evidence of having something instead of searching the city blindly again. We can plan ahead this time and maybe figure out what these things are.”

Matt ran a nervous hand through his tangled hair. “Shiro and Keith are well stocked for this, Lance.”

It was four against one.

Hunk rubbed circles on Lance’s back. He agreed with Lance on this, but he also knew Lance would be willing to go if he was still missing.

“Babe,” Hunk started quietly, “What would you do if you were Keith?”

Lance rubbed his face roughly and groaned. He threw his head back and slouched in the chair. He sniffled.

“Fine.”

Keith huffed. He didn’t need permission.

“It’ll be best if we go as a group. You and Hunk can stay here, Lance, just in case Shiro shows up like Hunk did.” Allura offered. She barely knew these people, but she was willing to pacify them. A torn group could be fatal in the unknown. Coran was her family, and although she had her father, Coran was more of the father figure in her life.

“What’s the plan, then?”

Keith looked to Pidge, then to Allura. “Well, first we need to decide who’s going.”

“I’m going,” Matt said, “Shiro’s my best friend,” Matt met Keith’s gaze, expecting an argument but found none. Keith wasn’t going to oppose his help. Matt and Shiro have been friends long before Keith came into the picture. He didn’t have to plead for a spot in Shiro’s life that was already there.

Keith swallowed his emotions painfully, good and bad. “Thank you.” Matt simply nodded.

“If Matt’s going, I’m going,” Pidge said, adjusting her glasses. Matt opened his mouth to argue but she pointed at him with a determined expression. “I just found you, I’m not losing you again. And Keith’s my best friend,” she added and looked at Keith. She hopped off the bar chair and walked over to him, fist up, “We’re in this together.”

Keith smiled. He fist-bumped her. “Thick or thin, Pidge.”

“How long are you guys going to take?” Hunk asked.

Keith looked at all of them.

“I’m not sure. I’m not leaving until I find him.” Hunk nodded and stroked his chin.

“I can cook you guys meals. You still have the Tupperware I got you as a wedding gift right?” Keith nodded. “Good. Four meals.”

“You’re welcome to the fridge. Everything is going to expire because it isn’t cold enough anyway.” Keith looked at Pidge and Allura. “You guys gather batteries and flashlights. Pidge knows where they’re at,” Keith turned to Matt, “Follow me.”

Keith led Matt down to the basement.

“Shiro still kept to his hobbies, huh?” Matt commented as he looked at the gun parts on the workbench.

Keith crouched in front of the gun safe and unlocked it. The Winchester sat untouched. Keith grabbed it and its shells and offered them to Matt. He whistled.

“Are you sure, Keith?” He asked. The weight of the gun was familiar and a memory of Shiro buying it played like a film that burned at the edges. He remembered splitting the cost with Shiro, and the gun’s early years were spent in Matt’s personal gun safe. He could handle it well. He wished he never had a use for his hobby, but alas…

“It’s technically half yours, so yeah, I’m sure,” Keith got up and shut the safe. Keith walked over to the center island and pulled out a strap and a black sleeve for the shotgun shells. “Do you want a knife as well?”

Matt blinked. “One of yours?”

Keith raised an eyebrow.  _ Obviously.  _ “Yeah? I have one with a strap. It’s small, but it’s serrated.” Keith pulled out a tub labeled “MISC” and dug through years’ worth of junk until he found the small dagger. “The vanta black are close-ranged fighters. It’s a safety net.”

“I’ll take it, then.”

Satisfied, Keith put the knife on the counter before he found its strap. He made his way toward the stairs. When he was halfway up, Matt called his name. He looked at Matt.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

Matt took in a deep breath. “For everything. He has you, and –“

Keith cut him off with an annoyed click of his tongue. “It’s fine, Matt.” Matt opened his mouth to say something else, but Keith cut him off again. “I don’t blame you for loving him.” Keith continued up the stairs. At the top, he deactivated the lock on the basement door. He could smell the aroma of meat and hear the sizzle of a pan. Allura and Pidge sat crisscrossed on the pullout couch as they counted batteries and checked flashlights.

Keith headed upstairs and to his bedroom. He pulled open the double doors of his closet and grabbed the two backpacks Shiro and Keith would use for work. He dumped out their contents on his bed, a few items rolling onto the floor. Keith left the mess and headed downstairs with the backpacks.

“Keith, we have a flashlight for everyone and at least one pair of spare batteries per flashlight,” Pidge reported.

“Great. We have two backpacks. One’s for me and the other for Matt. Put everything in here.”

“I’m going to grab your medical kit and divide the supplies,” Allura said as she walked past him and into the bathroom.

“There are refills for stuff in the cabinet above the sink,” he called after her. Keith walked to the kitchen to see Lance and Hunk dancing around each other, cooking and packing food into small Tupperware containers. A row of chilled water bottles sat on the kitchen table.

It took everyone thirty minutes to prepare everything: Food cooked and sealed in air-tight containers, two sets of makeshift medical kits stocked with band-aids, gauze, and ointments, water bottles divided evenly for everyone, and weapons sharpened and ammo reloaded. Keith swung his backpack over his shoulder, the weight of it heavy. Keith strapped his mother’s knife to the small of his back. It was a comfort, despite everything.

The group gathered in the living room, the air heavy and tense. No one knew what to say.

“Come back alive. All of you,” Lance said curtly, “We just met Allura and I would like to get drinks after this apocalypse shit is over.”

Allura chuckled. “You all have been very nice to me. I would like to get to know everyone when all of this is done.”

“Ditto,” Matt and Pidge said together.

Nerves pricked Keith’s skin the longer they talked about what they would do afterward. Lance sensed this and walked to him. Keith eyed him suspiciously and yelped as he was pulled into a hug.

“Come back alive,” he said so Keith could hear, “You’re my best friend. I don’t want to lose you too.” Keith wrapped his arms around Lance and hugged him back tightly.

“You got it,” Keith promised.

The group headed outside after Keith gave his house keys to Lance.

“Guys, look,” Pidge pointed toward the city.

A black spiral swirled over the downtown area of Voltron City. The red lighting was now the color of blood. The black swirl pulsed with purple lighting and in the distance, they could see lights flash throughout the city. A deep, loud shot echoed through the neighborhood.

A sick feeling pooled in Keith’s gut but he forced himself to stay calm. He pushed his fear aside for later.

“Talk about the belly of the beast,” Matt commented.

With one final goodbye to Hunk and Lance, the group piled into Matt’s van with Pidge in the driver’s seat. She sped through the empty highways and skidded into the backroads of the city. Through the window, Keith saw the rubble of buildings and the broken glass of businesses. As Pidge pulled into the main roads, they passed RIPTIDE. The windows were shattered and black stained the outside of the building.

“No one tell Lance his lounge is trashed,” Keith said, mostly to himself.

“Fuck!” Pidge slammed on the breaks and Keith lurched forward. He heard the tires squeal and a loud pop set a sharp pain through his ears and to his head. His head hit the top of the van as it rolled off the street and into the side of the building. Glass cascaded down and a sharp pain dug into Keith’s back.

Keith was knocked unconscious for a moment. When he awoke, Allura was frantically trying to tug the seatbelt off of him. He could taste blood in his mouth and his chest and head ached. His lower back ached dully as Allura pulled him out. His ears were ringing and his vision was hazy. He could make out Pidge crawling from the van with Matt in tow. After a few more seconds his vision cleared. The ringing in his ears dulled and was replaced by the sound of electric whispers.

“We have to go!” Pidge told him, her voice under water. Pidge tugged on his arm and Keith stumbled to his feet.

Behind them, the van caught fire and the monster Pidge crashed into engulfed the flame with its body. Keith heard an explosion along with a guttural shriek. Matt said something about soldiers, but he was still disoriented as they rounded the corner into a calmer street. Keith could feel a rumble beneath his feet as Pidge and Matt dragged him further.

“Okay, I think we’re good,” Allura breathed. She turned Keith around and dipped into their bag for a medical kit. “Is anyone else bleeding?” Keith watched as she unraveled gauze and ripped open a cleaning wipe.

“We’re good, Allura,” Matt said, patting Pidge’s shoulders and side of her head. She smacked his hands away. “Katie has a few scratches on her face but she’s fine.”

Keith let Allura clean his head and hissed when it stung. She wrapped a gauze around his head to cover his temples and cleaned up his lips. She shone a light in both of his eyes and sighed, relieved. “He has a very slight concussion, but he should be fine. Are you hurt anywhere else, Keith?”

Keith patted himself; his arms, legs, and his lower back. His lower back ached, but there was no blood. The sheath of the knife left an imprint on his back.

“I’m fine –“

A loud gunshot echoed in the street. Pidge yelped as she jumped backed and bumped into Allura. Allura caught her just in time to see Matt reload another shot. A large cat-like creature zipped just below the surface of the street, its body contorted with the bumps and cracks of the street. Pidge grabbed her gun and shot at it, the bullet ricocheting off of the street and into a car window.

“Wait for it to come up,” Keith grunted. He could feel his hands shaking as he unsheathed his knife. He watched as two more creatures approached. He watched them bubble and form a hunched human-like figure and a dog.

The human-like figure took a lunge toward Pidge and Keith stepped between them. It clawed his arm, leaving four scratch marks on his coat. Keith felt warm blood trickle down. He hissed as it burned in the open air and stepped forward. He slashed at it, pushing his knife into its body. The figure screeched. Keith sucked in a breath and stabbed at its throat as he heard another gunshot behind him. The creature crumbled into clumps of ash and its blood pooled at Keith’s feet. His blade was covered in the inky black, and he could see smoke rising from it. Keith wiped the blood off on the edge of the sidewalk as his group crowded around him.

“We need to keep moving,” Allura said breathlessly. Her rod cackled and pulsed with blue electricity. Matt and Pidge had black stains on their clothes. Allura seemed untouched except for black flecks in her silver hair.

The group continued forward, Keith directing them to the south side of town. As they grew closer to the subway, they could hear shouts and feel the rumble of tanks. The crowded behind an abandoned car and Keith’s blood chilled when the electric whispers filled his ear.

He whipped around, only to jump at the dark reflection of himself in a window.

“Look,” Pidge whispered.

A large, bulbous vanta black dragged itself from the street it was on. The tank in front of it fired, and its soldiers flanking it shot it without mercy. Keith grabbed the person near him and ducked. He covered Pidge’s head with his own and his arms as Matt did the same to Allura.

Bullets shattered the windows of the car and the window behind them. The deafening screech of the vanta black chilled Keith to the bone. When the gunfire stopped, so did the electric whispers. Keith heard the shouts of the army and the noise of its tank roll away from them. When everything died down, Keith let go of Pidge and peered around the side.

The vanta black creature left a swirling black scorch mark in the street, white smoke rising in a steady stream from the black pool.

“That thing was huge,” Matt said.

“They’re getting larger,” Allura observed, “but it’s nice to know that bullets still work against them.”

Pidge let out a shaky, “Yeah.”

Keith looked around again before he stood up. “Let’s keep moving.”

Keith and his friends stuck to the sides of the buildings and stepped over rubble and debris. Ash caked on the soles of their shoes and fatigue started to set into their bodies. Their city was a mixture of hellfire and ruins with black stains littering buildings, concrete, and the streets. The scratch marks on Keith’s arm numbed into an irritating burn and his head pulsed dully with a migraine. He was in no condition to continue forward, but going back wasn’t an option. As they walked closer to their destination, the sounds of the dying vanta black and fighting soldiers gave way to the familiar electric sounds.

A few snake-like creatures slithered onto the street before Keith. Pidge took aim.

“Don’t shoot,” he ordered, “Shine a light on them.”

Allura clicked on her flashlight and pointed the white beam at the snakes. They hissed and scattered, one inching over Keith’s boot to get away. Keith shook it off and stomped on it. It burst into a black ashy puddle. The other ones disappeared under a bent mailbox and under a manhole.

“I wonder if these are the only ones this affects,” Pidge thought aloud, “Maybe the smaller ones are weaker to the light.”

“I don’t really want to find out about the bigger ones,” Matt said.

Keith thought about it. “Neither do I.”

Pidge huffed out a laugh and Keith shoved her lightly with his shoulder.

As the rounded the final corner of the street, the red lighting of the city darkened. Directly above the entrance to the subway was a spiral of black that led to the dark clouds above the city. Electric currents illuminated the black frequently with purple light. Black rain slowly began to drizzle. A droplet landed on Keith’s face and it felt hot but not hot enough to burn.

“I think I know why these things are here,” the group turned to Pidge whose gaze didn’t leave from the spiraling black tornado, “Voltron City has one of the best electrical plants in the country. So much energy is stored here and saved that we sometimes have to sell it to nearby cities. The vanta black is attracted to electricity: the rolling blackouts, the noises they make and the fact that the air becomes electrically charged with static whenever they’re around. They’ve probably been feeding off of the city for a while now.”

“The blackouts didn’t start until three months ago,” Keith said, remembering the meeting where Shiro and his coworkers got chewed out in, “This explains why our techs couldn’t figure out a problem. There was never a problem with the machines. The problem lay underground.”

“The wiring,” Matt realized. Keith and Matt looked at each other and nodded.

“They’ve been sucking the electricity from the city, but that doesn’t explain why people are showing up dead or going missing,” Allura added.

_ Or using people as costumes, _ Keith thought bitterly.

“Don't humans conduct electricity?” Keith said as an afterthought as he watched a flash of purple illuminate the tornado.

Everyone went quiet.

After a pregnant pause, they all said in unison: “Fuck.”

Keith sprinted toward the entrance of the subway with his friends at his heels. His heart pumped with adrenaline as he slowed to a jog. His grip on his knife was like a vice: his knuckles turned white and he could feel the handle leave grooves in the palm of his hand. He stops just before the perimeter of the swirling black void.

The void consumed any distinguishable sign of the subway. The descending stairs, the graffiti, the old adverts, and the signs were all hidden by the black.

Keith stared down into the abyss and it stared back.


	6. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang go down into the sewers and see things they'd rather forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The majority of the tags are because of this chapter. Read with caution.  
> tags: Gore, Body Horror(!!!), Drowning, Claustrophobia, Nyctophobia, P.O.V. Change, Impalement

Allura shined the flashlight into the darkness, only for the beam to be swallowed. The beam shone a few inches in front of them before it hit a wall.

“Looks like our flashlights won’t be of much use,” Matt commented thoughtfully.

“Keep them on, anyway. If the vanta black really doesn't like the light, then it’ll be a safeguard for the smaller ones,” Keith said. Keith dug into his bag for his flashlight while Pidge did the same and handed Matt one.

With their flashlights on, the group descended into the void.

The hairs on the back of Keith’s neck stood up, and the static in the air lifted his hair just slightly. The electric whispers of the void welcomed him back like an old friend. They all took careful steps down the slick stairs as ash continued to collect at the bottom of their shoes. When the made into onto a flat surface, Keith signed in relief.

The darkness continued in front of them. Keith’s heart rate increased and his breath became ragged. Allura walked up next to him and placed a calm hand on his shoulder.

“Are you alright?” she asked, voice low. Keith watched Matt and Pidge continue forward.

“Yeah,” he croaked, “I just fucking hate the dark.”

Keith followed Pidge and Matt with Allura behind him. They walked for what seemed like hours, and the deeper they descended into the subway, the more they could smell the stench of rotting flesh. Soon, the flat surface angled and the group skidded on the slick surface. Keith shot his hands out to catch himself on where the wall used to be, but instead, he fell forward and rolled.

He splashed into the ankle-high water, his body cold and wet. The water was thick and grey mixed with green. Pidge shined her flashlight on him and watched as the thick water dripped down with a loud splash _._

“We’ve probably hit the tracks.” Pidge shined the light on the surface of the water and followed it upwards until she came back to the familiar black. The smell had gotten worse, and it now stung their noses unpleasantly. “This place reeks.”

Keith got up and sniffed his arm. He gagged. “At least you’re not soaked in it.”

Matt and Allura laughed.

“Come on,” Keith scowled, “Let’s keep moving.”

The ankle-high water soon rose to knee-deep. They could feel things passing them in the water and when Keith took another step, he found himself waist-deep in the dirty water. He watched as the water rippled around him and with each wave, something beneath the surface pulsed purple. Allura was about to take one step in when something hot coiled around Keith’s ankle.

“Don’t --!” Keith managed to shout before he was pulled under. He lost his grip on his flashlight as he tried to tear the black tentacle off of his ankle. He felt a jolt of electricity shock him. He screamed in pain and gasped in the sewage water, the taste of it on his tongue. His ears popped as he was dragged under and he could feel his panic seizing his heart. Keith flailed and tried to swim away as the thing dragged him further and further from the surface and away from his friends.

Keith shut his mouth and plugged his nose. The cold water made his body shake. His head was spinning with the possibility of drowning, dying in the deep water of the sewer. He held his breath until his lungs burned and his body was forced to gasp in the water again. Keith clutched his throat as bubbles formed above him. He was losing consciousness and he knew that if he passed out, this was it for him.

His lungs filled with water as he stopped the struggle to reach the surface.

His eyes slipped closed.

When he awoke, Keith spluttered out water. He forced himself to his side, his right arm digging into something sharp as he vomited grey and black water. His chest and his throat burned, and in the water, he could see a splatter of deep red. He felt something crunch and screamed in pain as he made eye contact with the vanta black.

It had a tentacle latched around his waist and leg as the thing chewed on Keith’s bleeding arm. Keith tugged on his arm to flee, but the creature tightened its grip on Keith’s waist and made him gasp. Keith balled his left hand into a fist and began to punch the thing, but it only moved its head. Keith could feel its stare as he hit it, its two-dimensional figure unsettling in the red light filtering from the storm drain above him.

His blood rushed loudly in his ears. Keith didn’t hear the _hum_ and _whirr_ behind him; he only saw a purple glow.

A figure crossed over Keith’s body, its purple glow slicing into the creature and making it disappear into a puddle of black ooze and wet ash. Keith watched through heavy-lidded eyes as the figure stood up, his familiar back was washed in the red light. The figure turned, and in the slice of red light, his white shock of hair, onyx eyes, and the scar across his face was illuminated.

Shiro stood a few feet away from him, prosthetic glowing the same purple Keith saw in the black tornado.

Keith grunted as he kicked himself away and reached for his knife on the small of his back with his good hand. He brandished it and pointed the blade at Shiro.

“Keith?” His voice sounded broken and exhausted mixed with shock.

“Don’t say my name!” Keith shouted. Hot tears streamed down his face as Shiro took another step. Keith scrambled to get up, using his legs to get himself onto his feet. He held his right arm to his body and didn’t feel the blood trickle from his open wounds. Keith was soaking wet and his teeth were bared. To Shiro, he looked feral.

Keith watched as the purple glow of Shiro’s arm disappeared, and Shiro put his hands up.

“Who are you?!” Keith said again, this time his voice cracking. He watched as hurt flashed in Shiro’s eyes, and a pang of guilt echoed throughout Keith’s body. _Don’t feel,_ he thought to himself, _If one Shiro can love you and kill you, then this one is no different._

“Keith, it’s me --“

“Don’t fucking lie to me!” his voice cracked, “How do I know you’re the real Shiro?”

The question echoed in Shiro’s head and his heart skipped a beat.

“The first time I proposed to you, you turned me down. You proposed to me a year later, and I said yes.”

Keith face twisted in pain. He remembered the disappointment that settled onto Shiro’s features when Keith said no, but Keith still had insecurities to tackle. Matt’s feelings, Shiro’s feelings, his own self-worth – it was too much for him to go into a marriage. He got help, and a year later, Keith felt confident enough to propose.

Keith felt the ghost of fake Shiro’s hands on him. It knew how Keith worked, knew what he liked.

“Please, something else,” Keith begged as he sniffed. His hand began to shake, and if this was another fake Shiro, he’s going to die remembering that the man he loved killed him in cold blood. “Anything else,” he whispered softly.

“What do you want me to do, baby?”

Keith squeezed his eyes shut and sucked in a breath.

“Show me your birthmark.”

Shiro unbuttoned his dirty shirt; dirt, blood, and ash flaked off as he did so. When his shirt was half unbuttoned, Shiro turned around and pulled his shirt down. Keith squinted to see the familiar oblong shapes of Shiro’s birthmark. There were five odd shapes in total, coming together to form something Keith thought looked like a lion’s paw print.

Relief washed over Keith as his legs gave out. His knife clattered to the ground. Shiro quickly pulled his shirt back over his shoulders and kneeled beside Keith, hesitating to touch him. Keith leaned forward and burned his head on Shiro’s shoulders. He was warm and smelled like smoke, but it was him. The real Shiro. Keith’s Shiro.

Shiro embraced his husband, burying his own head into Keith’s good shoulder. Keith shook from relief and the cold of his wet body. They stayed that way for a while, each of them lost in their own answered prayers. They were together again.

When they pulled apart, Shiro was the first to speak.

“Can you feel your arm?”

Keith moved it and felt bile at the base of his throat. His right arm was mangled: there were teeth marks deep in his muscle and fresh blood still bubbling. Keith pretended not to see the white underneath. Shock made him feel numb to what he was seeing.

“No,” Keith tried closing his fingers, but only his pinky curled in, “I can barely move my fingers.”

“We need to get out of here,” Shiro said with a sense of urgency.

“Are you alright though?” Keith asked as Shiro helped him up. Shiro remembered to grab Keith’s knife and sheath it in its holster.

Shiro raised an eyebrow. Keith gave him a pointed look. Shiro sighed. “Aside from my arm becoming a weapon and fighting those things every few minutes, I’m fine.”

“Do you remember anything?” Keith asked as they limped down the sidewalk in the sewer. Keith could hear the rumble and gunfire of the army echo through the empty tunnels.

“Bits and pieces. I remember waking up back in the subway station before it was completely covered in those creatures.”

“The swirling void?” Keith asked. “Are those creatures?” Shiro nodded.

“I didn’t believe it at first, either, but that was probably due to denial and shock more than anything. Those things form in the void, but I don’t know how frequently.”

“We walked through there, and nothing happened until we hit the water.”

“I don’t know how they’re formed, but I never saw any form when I walked through there. Only after.”

“Guess that explains what was gnawing on me earlier,” Shiro winced, “Sorry.”

“How come you didn’t believe I was me?”

Keith went silent as they walked into another void space. The electric whispers almost becoming a comforting noise.

“The first time I entered a void space, I saw you. You were unconscious. Lance and I carried you out of the void. It was surreal. I thought… I thought it was you. We took it home. I helped bathe it. It was undeniably you until I saw where its birthmark was.”

Keith coughed, a metallic tang coating his tongue.

“I should’ve known it was a fake right then, but I thought I was seeing things. I thought… I was tired. I’ve been looking for you ever since you went missing. I could hardly sleep at night. I felt your presence, and saw shapes of you…” Keith’s bottom lip trembled.

Shiro rubbed circles on Keith’s lower back. “We both need a long rest after this is over, huh?”

Keith chuckled through his sorrow. “Yeah.”

The two of them walked deeper into the void. They went aimlessly, but they could feel a cool wind blow through the desolate space. Keith felt his throat and his heart squeeze as he felt the black close in on him. Shiro felt his panic and whispered sweet nothings into his ear. Keith focused on his voice and breathed when Shiro started to count for him.

When it got colder, they found themselves just before the void they left with tunnels all around them. They heard running footsteps, and Shiro gently moved Keith behind him. When the footsteps got closer, Keith unsheathed his knife with an unsteady hand and the glow of Shiro’s arm illuminated the small space with a soft purple glow.

Pidge emerged from the black, fresh blood on her face and smeared on her glasses. Matt limped up behind her.

“Matt? Pidge?”

Pidge looked up, her eyes red. She took a moment to realize who was in front of her. Matt looked dumbfounded at the man before him.

She scrambled for her gun and before she could cock it, Keith stumbled in front of Shiro, and Shiro caught him by his waist before he could fall.

“Keith?” Pidge said, a hint of anger in her voice.

“Don’t shoot, it’s him,” Keith rushed out, “It’s really him.”

Pidge flipped the safety to “OFF” before she slid it back in its holster. She brushed past Keith and slammed into Shiro, her small arms wrapping around him and her fists clutching the back of his shirt. The purple glow diminished.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

“It’s okay, it wouldn’t be the first time a weapon was pointed at me.” Pidge hiccupped a small laugh as she pulled away, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. Shiro looked at her to Matt, who stood a little differently than he remembered.

Matt was putting more pressure on his right leg, and the shotgun he held loosely was something they bought together. The last time Shiro saw Matt, he had a determined expression that changed to hurt when he was swallowed by the black.

“Shiro?” Matt walked forward before he engulfed the bigger man in a hug. Shiro wrapped his arms around his best friend and buried his face in the crook of his neck. Keith watched their reunion with a peaceful heart.

Shiro pulled away first and squeezed Matt’s shoulders. “Don’t do that again,” Shiro said seriously, but with a playful undertone. Matt scoffed.

“I won’t unless you decided to be a hero again.” The two laughed.

Keith turned to Pidge.

“Where’s Allura?”

A difficult expression crossed her face before she answered. “We found a crevice where the creatures dumped the bodies. They pulsed with purple electricity and it was…” Pidge shuttered, “Gore."

“Allura found Coran.”

Keith got the hint. His heart leaped to his throat.

Quiet, echoed footsteps sounded throughout their small space. Behind Keith, Allura pushed her way through the black. From what Keith could see, her silver hair was tied back and her normally perfect posture was slightly hunched. She used her rod as a walking stick. No one knew what to say to her as she joined them.

Keith slung his good arm around her, mid-torso. He rubbed her arm and she leaned on him. He pretended he didn’t feel her warm tears drip onto his cold shirt. Before Keith could say something, a loud, echoing roar thundered through the tunnels. The water under their feet rippled.

“We need to leave,” Shiro said with the same sense of urgency as before. He looked above him. Overhead was a marking he had made with his arm; an arrow pointed to the tunnel where Allura had come from. Keith looked up and saw it.

“We need to go back that way. There’s an exit that comes out near the university.”

Everyone nodded. Keith held onto Allura as they walked, the right side of his body beginning to turn numb. His arm began to scab and tingle. It became harder to breathe as they walked back into a void space. Allura sniffled and collapsed her rod. She reached into Keith’s bag and grabbed a bottle of liquid and gauze.

“We need to stop and treat this,” she said hoarsely, “You could lose your arm.”

Matt and Pidge didn’t notice until they took a good look at Keith’s arm.

Pidge gasped in silent horror. “What happened?”

Sweat dribbled down from the wrap on Keith’s head.

“A monster tried to eat Keith alive,” Shiro said tersely.

Keith hissed as Allura poured disinfectant around the wound. “This will keep the outside clean until we get you to a hospital. I’m sorry.” Keith shook his head. Allura wrapped the white gauze around the length of his arm and clasped it close with sticky medical tape. She put the items back in his bag.

Exhausted and injured, the group continued forward. Keith’s black world was getting darker as his fear began to sink in. The darkness was so close, and even with his friends and his husband, he didn’t feel safe. The void created these creatures. It created the creature that almost tore his arm off. That killed Coran. That kidnapped his husband. That destroyed his city.

Keith’s breathing started to pick up.

“Keith,” Shiro said, voice underwater, “Keith, baby, stay with me.” Shiro ran trembling fingers through Keith’s damp hair. The group slowed their pace until they stopped. Keith leaned into Shiro’s touch as he started to shake. “We’re almost there, baby, just a little while longer,” Shiro’s voice hitched as he felt something grab his ankle.

The void began to swirl; black, purple, and spots of white pulsed through the enclosed space. The area began to warp and bend. Their vision stretched and pulled apart as headaches ripped through all of them.

Keith screamed.

“What’s happening?” Pidge said, panicked.

“Keep moving!” Allura shouted.

The group began to run. Shiro hurried his husband along. Keith’s vision spun and his body felt sluggish. His legs started to turn numb. He knew death was coming.

“Leave me,” he rasped as he shoved Shiro away. Shiro kept a vice grip on his husband’s good arm. “Shiro, please.”

“I just found you, Keith, I’m not leaving you.” Keith watched as Pidge, Matt and Allura’s silhouette folded in and stretched, but they were still moving. Keith tried to shake Shiro off as his vision began to darken.

“We go together, baby, always.”

Keith nodded as he felt his body slump.

He doesn’t remember falling.

.

 

.

 

 

.

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

Keith slumped in Shiro’s arms and panic completely seized Shiro. It choked his throat and brought his hands to cup Keith’s face.

“Keith, keep your eyes open, okay? Keep them open.” Shiro pleaded. Keith’s lips parted, his breath weak against Shiro’s face. Keith nodded weakly as the ground under them gave out.

Shiro wrapped Keith in his arms and flipped them so if they landed, Keith landed on top of Shiro. Shiro could hear Matt’s and Pidge’s voices as he fell, his surroundings swirling with purple and black. The electric whispering grew louder as they approached a flat surface. Shiro slammed hard onto concrete, his vision spinning as his breath left him. He gasped painfully as Keith removed himself.

Shiro turned himself over and coughed violently. He could hear Keith grunt and when he looked, Keith’s eyes were hazily transfixed on something in front of him. He held his mother’s blade with a forced steady hand. Shiro looked to where Keith’s attention was. A few feet away, black bubbled upward until it reached the ceiling. Shiro watched as the creature formed into a flat, large monster. It had noticeable narrow claws and its body blocked the two lovers from the only exit. Shiro’s arm whirred to life, the purple glow illuminating him and Keith.

“Keith, stay behind me.”

The creature lunged forward. Shiro balled his right fist to meet its claws. Shiro felt his fist burn into the creatures claws and it let out an ear-splitting screech. The screech echoed in the tunnels as Shiro felt a small jolt of electricity run through him. The creature retracted its claws and tumbled backward. Its body landed in the water, the residual waves nearly knocking Shiro over.

Keith grabbed onto Shiro’s leg, steadying him, before using it as support. Shiro felt Keith claw his way up as the creature sloshed in the water.

“I saw the exit,” Keith gasped.

“It’s just past this thing,” Shiro nodded, “Keith, you can make your way forward. I’ll keep it occupied.”

Keith frowned. He squeezed Shiro’s arm. “No. You said it yourself,” Keith let go of his husband to ground himself. Keith hunched over as much as he could and placed his bad arm in front of him as a guard. His knife was in his left hand, steady and confident. Shiro could see the focus in his eyes and Keith gritted his teeth through the hurt. “We’re in this life together, Shiro. Until death.”

Shiro sighed. His heart squeezed.

The creature began to get up.

“Fine, but I attack first. Cover me if that thing decides to grow a tail.”

Keith huffed. _A laugh._ “Yes, sir.”

Shiro ran forward as he flattened his hand. He used his momentum to jump up just as the creature hobbled onto its feet to slash through its chest. The creature screeched again and swiped at Shiro. Its claws scratched at Shiro’s side and its flat hand smacked Shiro out of the air and into the wall of the tunnel. Shiro saw white momentarily. The ache came afterward as he hit the ground. Shiro heard the soles of shoe slap and splash in the shallow water. He whipped his head up to see Keith drive his knife into the creature’s unfurling leg.

Keith gritted his teeth as he wiggled the knife into the creature’s leg. He sawed at it until black blood pooled on the surface. The creature moved to grab Keith, but Shiro was quicker.

Shiro stumbled as he stopped the creature’s claw with his hand. He could feel the metal bend under the purple glow as the creature forced Shiro to skid back slightly. Shiro watched Keith rip the knife from the creature’s leg and stumble back. Shiro pushed on the creatures claw and felt its nail sink it. The creature let him go in agony. Shiro grabbed Keith and walked them back as the thing stumbled onto its arms.

The creature let out a guttural growl that sent chills down their spines. It echoed faintly in the tunnels as an electric spark danced beneath its four feet. Its face lowered and its posture changed into a stance Shiro recognized from his childhood cat.

It’s about to attack.

Shiro put his hand up, ready to meet it again. Except for this time, the creature’s head morphed and bubbled into a new shape.

Shiro blinked.

Keith was in front of him, and a sharp sting jolted Shiro back. The front of his shirt had been torn through, but he wasn’t bleeding. Shocked, Shiro followed the point into Keith’s lower back. Shiro watched as Keith moved his head to the side and opened his mouth. Shiro couldn’t hear the words through the loud ringing in his ears. Shiro watched as Keith was lifted up, his hands on the spear that impaled him. Shiro watched as Keith tried to push himself off of the claw. Blood slowly poured over his lips and Keith gagged on the metallic taste.

“Keith,” Shiro said desperately. Shiro followed Keith’s movement. He stationed himself just below him, ready to catch his fall. Shiro watched as the start of a purple spark blinked at the base of the creature’s black nail. “Keith!”

Purple electricity surged through the claw visibly and shocked Keith. In a few seconds, Keith’s seizing body slumped over, arms swinging loosely as the creature raised him through the air. Shiro ran to follow Keith’s shadow as the creature flung Keith toward the side. Keith hit the wall with a flat _thud._ Shiro jumped forward to meet Keith before he hit the ground.

The weight made Shiro’s knees buck. Shiro cradled Keith in his arms. Fresh blood dribbled down dried blood, and Shiro couldn’t bring himself to look at the hole in Keith’s torso. Instead, he caressed Keith’s face. He traced his fingers along the curve of his cheeks, Keith's blood collecting at Shiro's fingertips. Keith was staring directly at Shiro, gaze foggy. Shiro grabbed Keith’s left hand. The warmth that was there was replaced by a damp cold. Shiro ran his fingers over Keith’s before he brought Keith’s knuckles to his lips. The gold ring was cool against his lips.

Keith dragged his trembling fingers weakly across whatever skin he could reach. Shiro watched as he tried to say something, but the last light in Keith’s eyes flickered before being snuffed out. It hurt Shiro’s heart to feel Keith’s body go limp.

Behind him, the creature shrieked once more.

Shiro gently laid Keith down on the cold, wet floor. He said a silent apology and a promise.

Shiro’s right arm burned him at the edge of his flesh as the purple glow grew in intensity. A violent purple shimmered in Shiro’s eyes. His arm hummed as he squeezed his hand into a fist. The creature leaped out at him, the bladed head that stabbed Keith shattered when Shiro met it with the joint of his knuckles. The creature’s sharp head crumbled into wet ash at Shiro’s feet as its black blood spluttered. It stained Shiro’s dirty clothes and burned into the top of his worn shoes and his cheek. The body of the creature shuttered and shrank until it turned into a lion-like form, its mane a purple haze of hot electricity.

Shiro took a step back, shielding Keith’s body. The creature’s head rocked back and forth. Shiro felt its eyes on him. He was the first to step forward. Shiro flattened his hand again and sliced at the creature as it scratched at him. Its claws nicked at Shiro’s skin before it dragged down his arm. It let out a long, low growl as a nail caught in Shiro’s elbow joint. Shiro slammed a fist in the middle of the creatures face, the purple glow of it disappeared as his fist sank into its body. The creature morphed again and dragged Shiro upward as it grew taller. It shrieked as electricity crackled around Shiro’s arm. Stray sparks shocked Shiro’s body as it continued to morph and bubble. The creature was dead, and it was trying to hold on to Shiro. It eventually dropped him onto his back.

Shiro’s arm deactivated as he ran toward Keith. He draped himself over Keith’s body as the creature exploded in a fury of sparks and black blood. The blood splattered across the tunnel and Shiro’s back. Shiro winced as it burned into his shirt and legs. After a while, Shiro turned around, breathing heavy as his eyes scanned the ruined tunnel. Black stained and dripped heavily from the walls. Purple sparks hopped and died in the water at his feet. When the air settled, Shiro turned back to Keith.

Hot tears dripped onto Keith’s faces as Shiro lowered his head. He touched their foreheads together and heaved wet sobs. Keith’s eyes were lifeless and his lips were slightly parted. Shiro’s lips trembled as he took a long look at his husband’s body. The place where he was stabbed was burned black, and the clothes around it were charred and stuck to his body from dried blood. Shiro used his left hand to close Keith’s eyes and his mouth. Shiro shuttered as he slipped his arms underneath Keith and pulled him toward him. His legs shook with exhaustion as he lifted Keith up, but they had to leave.

Shiro heard wailing sirens and the footfalls of heavy boots as he headed toward the exit. He adjusted Keith in his arms as he ascended the subway stairs. Shiro was meet with a line of army men and their tanks.

He continued to walk forward.

Guns were pointed at him, and through a loud speaker, he was ordered to, “Remain where you are.”

Shiro saw men drag Matt, Pidge, and the girl Keith was with toward ambulances. He didn’t hear their angry shouts of, “Let him go,” and, “He needs help!”

Paramedics were allowed to approach Shiro once he was on his knees, but he refused to let go of Keith. A woman knelt next to him and assured Shiro he could follow them. He could ride in the ambulance with them.

Shiro carried Keith as he was escorted through the line of army men and their tanks. He placed Keith’s body on a stretcher and remained silent.

He felt that Keith would come home in a small, wooden box.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *olaf voice* I've been impaled.


	7. At Last

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a/n at the end.

_Is this the end of us? Or just the means to start again?_

Shiro waited in the cold halls of the hospital. His leg shook anxiously. Matt sat on his right side, then Pidge. Lance sat to his left, then Hunk, then the woman named Allura who had befriended his husband. When a group of high-ranking officers came to question them, they had spared Shiro at the request of his friends. Shiro didn’t want to think about what happened in the tunnel. When his friends came back, they all avoided eye contact with Shiro as he stared blankly at his vague reflection in the ICU window. He wasn’t allowed inside, nor allowed to look in, so he waited.

He sat there for hours before the hours turned to days. His friends had left him and brought him food, to check on him. Shiro said his thanks to them, always, but he never left. He watched various nurses and doctors leave in and out of the room. They only updated him when Keith’s vitals changed, but they told him each time his husband wasn’t awake.

By some miracle, Keith’s heart restarted. His breathing was very faint and his pulse was dangerously low. He had third-degree burns on his chest and back and an infection from the wound on his right arm. His ribs had been crushed and his body littered with small burns. His external injuries were recovering, but Keith needed help in operating his internal systems. By the third week, Keith’s lead doctor sat down with Shiro and talked about Keith’s condition with him.

Keith body is healing.

Keith isn’t expected to wake up again.

They told Shiro to go home. A nurse left him paperwork to read and to sign along with a payment plan to keep Keith on life support. As he signed out and turned in the paperwork, Shiro grabbed a flyer for approved visiting hours.

He left the military hospital, exhausted and hungry.

 

 

_Six months later…_

Shiro keyed open the front door of his home and entered. He shrugged off his backpack and threw his jacket on the nearest chair. He kicked his shoes off and sighed.

He could still smell the flowers he left Keith along with the sterile smell of the hospital.

He made his way upstairs and sat on the edge of his unmade bed. The black spot that was left on his carpet was gone; replaced by a new tan carpeting Keith would fret over once he came home. Shiro watched as the yellow lighting of his room shifted to red, then to blue.

After five months, he’s still afraid to fall asleep.

Shiro has been seeing the same memory in his dreams every night since Keith was admitted. He watched as Keith was stabbed, again and again by the creature that haunted his dreams. Each dream would end the same, or worse. Somedays, Shiro was the one who died instead of Keith. Other days, the two of them died, hand in hand and wet with each other’s blood.

 _It’s almost poetic,_ Shiro thought grimly.

Eventually, Shiro got up and managed to change into pajama pants. He slipped under his covers and ignored his need to reach over to his left side.

Tonight, he had a new dream.

Shiro walked through the green tunnels of the subway. He followed the winding tracks down, deep into the earth until he reached water. Rats scurried beside him as he sloshed through the water and came to a stop at a crossroad. Each dark tunnel echoed a familiar electric noise that numbed Shiro to his core. The one to his left, however, was silent. He could see down into it as black swirled out to him.

There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Shiro turned and headed down the silent tunnel. His footsteps echoed faintly. The closer he got to the light, the quieter his footsteps got. When he reached the end of the tunnel, the light source came from the open subway entrance. Shiro’s calm suddenly turned to panic as he ran toward a black stain on the wall.

The stain swirled and crackled with purple electricity. He felt the ground below him sink. When he looked down, a large, black hole opened beneath him. He stepped backward until the black swirl stopped its growth. Shiro’s back was against the wall when it stopped. The black created waves in the still water. Shiro peered into it.

Keith stared back at him.

Shiro awoke with a hard gasp and his heart beating fast. He reached to his side and felt the empty space. Dawn started to color the purple sky as Shiro left his bed to his bathroom. He took a cold shower and dressed for work. When he came home that day, he would have that same dream again. And again. And again.

The dream haunted him as he felt the itch to go back into the tunnel. He would drive past the barricaded street every day, and in the back of his mind, he thought that he would have to venture back in there. The vanta black had disappeared the day Keith had died, and a portion of the downtown area was under construction. Volt Electric still had trouble rewiring the city, so it cut off all electricity save for the emergency stock that made streetlights flash yellow and kept the stores in business.

It’s been eight months since Keith was induced into a coma.

Shiro pulled into the back alley parking lot of RIPTIDE and entered the lounge.

“We’re closing soon, so – Oh, Shiro!” Lance greeted.

“Shiro!” Pidge and Matt said in unison.

Hunk burst through the kitchen doors. “Shiro!”

His friends tackled him in a group hug, and a bubble of happiness popped into Shiro’s chest as he feigned hurt from the weight of them on him.

“Allura isn’t here today?” he asked. Allura had become a steady presence in his life since Keith, and she easily became an important person in their small friend group.

Lance shook his head. “She’s having dinner with her father and her aunt today.”

Shiro nodded. “I have something to tell you guys.” At this, his friends let him go. Matt saw the tenseness in his shoulders and sat on a nearby barstool. Pidge followed his lead. Lance and Hunk stood to the side of him as he took in a deep breath.

“I’ve been having this dream lately, for about a month,” Shiro started, “It’s different from my… usual dreams. I’m back in the tunnel and where Keith and I fought the monster, where he,” Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes. He cleared his throat before he relaxed again. He ignored his friend’s worried glances. “He almost died. This black hole opens up, and it’s a void space and I…” Shiro coughed into his fist, “I saw Keith in it.”

“Keith?” Lance echoed. His eyebrows stitched together in thought. “Keith Keith?”

Shiro nodded. He crossed his arms together. Lance mirrored his stance.

“I want to go back.”

“Shiro,” Matt started but didn’t finish. Shiro cut him off with a “wait” hand gesture.

“It has to mean something,” he said quietly, “Keith’s been in the hospital for almost a year. This dream interrupted my other nightmares. Before I saw him die every night and now, I see his face, clear as day. No wounds, no blood, just Keith. My Keith,” he finished.

His friends went silent.

“I want to go back,” Shiro repeated after a long pause, “Those things haven’t been seen since then, and even if my dream is nothing, I still want to check. Just to see.”

Another pause.

“I’ll go with you,” Lance said. Hunk grabbed Lance’s hand in his. Lance turned to look at him. Hunk nodded. Lance squeezed his hand.

“Likewise,” Pidge added.

Matt scratched the stubble on his chin. His scar ached about going back into the subway. “I’ll go too.”

“I’ll stay at the entrance,” Hunk said. Shiro huffed out a laugh. “Just in case someone comes, you know? Like, I’m the eyes in the sky.”

“Thanks, Hunk. I don’t know how often the army patrols. Should we call Allura?”

“No,” Pidge said quickly, “She’ll only remember Coran and…” Pidge drifted as she remembered the drive to Allura’s house late into the night. She remembered their talk and Allura’s fears. “She doesn’t want to see that place again.”

Shiro nodded.

“When did you plan on going in?” Hunk asked.

“Tonight, if possible,” Shiro rubbed the back of his neck, “I kind of… planned for it.”

“Planned for it?” Matt repeated with a smirk. “Meaning, you have flashlights already.”

Embarrassed, Shiro became fixated on a new painting that hung above Lance’s bar.

“Maybe,” he said.

After Lance finished closing, the group piled into Shiro’s car. Matt slipped into the front seat, his legs running into a large backpack. Curious, Matt opened it as Shiro eyed him from the driver seat.

“Flashlights!” Matt laughed. “And… guns. Damn, Shiro. You really did come prepared.” Two guns sat at the bottom of the bag in cheap cloth holsters. “Only two though?”

Shiro shrugged as he pulled out of the back parking lot of RIPTIDE. “I definitely thought Pidge and Lance were coming.”

Matt feigned hurt. “And not me? Your best friend?”

Shiro laughed. “I thought you’d still be at work, honestly. Plus, we both have bad feelings about the place. I thought I’d spare you.”

“How thoughtful,” Pidge smirked as she leaned over the middle console of Shiro’s car, “Dibs on a gun.”

“Second dibs!” Lance shouted.

“Double-dibs,” Matt called. Pidge frowned.

“No fair.”

“Hey, just rock-paper-scissors for it,” Shiro offered as a middle ground.

“What about you?” Hunk asked. Shiro looked to his arm and gave Hunk a look through the rearview mirror. “Oh.”

Pidge and Matt got into a five-round battle with Matt as the victor. Shiro pulled into a parking spot two streets over from the barricade. Matt armed himself with the gun and flashlight before he passed the backpack back. Everyone grabbed a flashlight as Shiro cut the engine, the final one being handed to him when he stepped out of the car.

Shiro led the group to the barricade. Yellow lights blinked above the orange and white striped half-wall before a chain-link fence. A sign read, “WARNING: NO TRESPASSING BEYOND THIS POINT. DEADLY FORCE IS AUTHORIZED.”

Shiro shoved his flashlight into his waistband and climbed onto the half-wall.

“Anyone else read the sign?” Hunk whispered nervously.

“It’s fine,” Lance whispered back as he followed Shiro’s lead.

The fence creaked under their weight. Shiro looked around for any sign of movement but found none. Once Hunk climbed over, the group continued forward with no disruption. When they reached the subway entrance, there was no void to greet them, just the eerie green walls illuminated by dull yellow lighting.

“I preferred this place with the void,” Matt said. Pidge nodded in agreement.

“I’ll keep watch. Or run. Keep watch and then run?” Hunk asked, his voice changing octaves.

“Yell, then run,” Shiro said. Hunk nodded.

The group descended into the stairway. Their light footsteps echoed as they descended the stairs. Shiro became aware of his surroundings: he could hear the small squeaks of rats and the dripping pipes. Somewhere down in the tunnels echoed soldiers’ heavy footsteps. He felt is right arm itch with anticipation, and he wondered if his prosthetic would activate like the one that was seized by the army did.

Shiro made is way toward the back of the tunnel where the light didn’t reach. He clicked on his flashlight, the rest of them doing the same.

“Jesus,” Matt whispered as he shined his flashlight on the stained wall. A large, black splatter covered the wall. Above it was brown flecks.

Pidge kept her light on Shiro as she followed him toward the end of the tunnel. Lance ran his beam over the walls, sidewalks, and the shallow water. His eye caught something and he moved it the light back. Dried blood was caked on the concrete. Lance gagged.

Shiro’s flashlight beam disappeared in a pool of murky water. Pidge’s beam beside him disappeared as well.

“Guys,” Shiro called. He heard their footsteps slosh in the water. The group crowded around just before the small, black void.

It swirled with black and purple. Shiro took a step forward and felt his foot sink in. He pulled back.

His heart thudded against his chest as he handed his flashlight to Matt. He kneeled down in the water, it soaked into his jeans as he felt for the edge of the ground.

“Shiro,” Matt said tentatively.

Shiro peered over the ledge into the void. At the bottom, he could make out the outline of a figure. He watched as the black slid off of it to reveal a person half-curled in a fetal position. His eyes traced the body, a sick feeling pooling in the pit of his stomach. White dots raced to the figure and Shiro reached out. His hand sank into the water before he pulled it out. The white disappeared under the body and created a glowing halo underneath it. The small body was familiar.

The person’s hair was a mop behind their head. Their eyes closed and their skin a sickly pale. Their clothes were ripped at their right arm and the person’s leg was twisted in an odd way. The ring on their left finger glistened.

_Keith._

Shiro looked over his shoulder at his friends, their eyes on him. Shiro turned back around. He took in a deep breath and exhaled. He let his eyes slip closed on his second inhale and perched his body forward.

He dived in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to anyone who has decided to read this. For those of you who were reading it as it was posted, I deeply apologize. My internship and my college work kept me from posting way back when, and after I came back from my internship, my depression took an ugly turn. I'm okay, I'm just sorry I didn't post the last three chapters sooner.
> 
> For this story, I had decided to follow the Hero's Journey along with a horror plotline, but whether it worked or not is up to you guys. I wrote this story before season 5 dropped. I reread it, and I feel like a lot of stuff was weak but I will keep writing bad horror fics until I'm good at it LOL.
> 
> As always, feel free to leave constructive criticism. I tried taking the help from BM into this fic but I don't if I did any of that correctly LOL. An attempt was made. 
> 
> Thank you so much for your support. This story wouldn't be possible without my beta readers, [Kat](http://cadet-chilton.tumblr.com/) and [Myst](http://whoalookingcooljoker.tumblr.com/), or the artist, [Ren](http://twitter.com/renstxne). Please give them love. They are awesome.
> 
> Come yell at me on my [tumblr](http://grimkohai.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](http://twitter.com/grimkohai). Or the comments, LOL.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! It's... slowly gunna build but the pacing is fast, if that makes sense. Thank you so much for reading! My plan is to update every Friday, but if there are any delays, I'll mention it over on my [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/grimkohai/).


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